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The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light.

— Enrico Fermi

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Source: On the Hydrogen bomb in a minority annex (co-authored with I. I. Rabi) to an official General Advisory Committee report for the Atomic Energy Commission (30 October 1949)
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Enrico Fermi

Although the problem of transmuting chemical elements into each other is much older than a satisfactory definition of the very concept of chemical element, it is well known that the first and most important step towards its solution was made only nineteen years ago by the late Lord Rutherford, who started the method of the nuclear bombardments.

I hope it won't take long.

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There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

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I cannot think of a single one, not even intelligence.

If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist.

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He was simply unable to let things be foggy. Since they always are, this kept him pretty active.

Such a weapon goes far beyond any military objective and enters the range of very great natural catastrophes. By its very nature it cannot be confined to a military objective but becomes a weapon which in practical effect is almost one of genocide.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Enrico Fermi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.