Ernest Rutherford Quotes

Never say, "I tried it once and it did not work." ~ Ernest Rutherford

Should a young scientist working with me come to me after two years of such work and ask me what to do next, I would advise him to get out of science. After two years of work, if a man does not know what to do next, he will never make a real scientist. ~ Ernest Rutherford

If, as I have reason to believe, I have disintegrated the nucleus of the atom, this is of greater significance than the war.
[Apology to the international anti-submarine committee for being absent from several meetings during World War I.] ~ Ernest Rutherford

If you don't do the best with what you have, You could never have done better with what you could have had ! ~ Ernest Rutherford

Upon his return to New York, Robert opened his mail to learn that Ernest Rutherford had rejected him. "Rutherford wouldn't have me," Oppenheimer recalled. "He didn't think much of Bridgman and my credentials were peculiar. ~ Kai Bird

We are rather like children, who must take a watch to pieces to see how it works. ~ Ernest Rutherford

All scientific men will be delighted to extend their warmest congratulations to Tesla and to express their appreciation of his great contributions to science. ~ Ernest Rutherford

I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies ... ~ Ernest Rutherford

When we consider the magnitude and extent of his discoveries and their influence on the progress of science and of industry, there is no honour too great to pay to the memory of Faraday, one of the greatest scientific discoverers of all time. ~ Ernest Rutherford

I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist. ~ Ernest Rutherford

Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently. ~ Ernest Rutherford

You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 1012 to 1. ~ Ernest Rutherford

I think a strong claim can be made that the process of scientific discovery may be regarded as a form of art. This is best seen in the theoretical aspects of Physical Science. The mathematical theorist builds up on certain assumptions and according to well understood logical rules, step by step, a stately edifice, while his imaginative power brings out clearly the hidden relations between its parts. A well constructed theory is in some respects undoubtedly an artistic production. A fine example is the famous Kinetic Theory of Maxwell ... The theory of relativity by Einstein, quite apart from any question of its validity, cannot but be regarded as a magnificent work of art. ~ Ernest Rutherford

It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back to hit you. ~ Ernest Rutherford

The landed classes neglected technical education, taking refuge in classical studies; as late as 1930, for example, long after Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge had discovered the atomic nucleus and begun transmuting elements, the physics laboratory at Oxford had not been wired for electricity. Intellectual neglect technical education to this day.
[Describing C.P. Snow's observations on the neglect of technical education.] ~ Richard Rhodes

When we have found how the nucleus of atoms is built up we shall have found the greatest secret of all - except life. We shall have found the basis of everything - of the earth we walk on, of the air we breathe, of the sunshine, of our physical body itself, of everything in the world, however great or however small - except life. ~ Ernest Rutherford

It is essential for men of science to take an interest in the administration of their own affairs or else the professional civil servant will step in - and then the Lord help you. ~ Ernest Rutherford

That which is not measurable is not science. That which is not physics is stamp collecting. ~ Ernest Rutherford

If your experiment needs a statistician, you need a better experiment. ~ Ernest Rutherford

We haven't got the money, so we've got to think. ~ Ernest Rutherford

Now I know what the atom looks like. ~ Ernest Rutherford

Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department. ~ Ernest Rutherford

The more physics you have the less engineering you need. ~ Ernest Rutherford

The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't. ~ Ernest Rutherford

All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial. ~ Ernest Rutherford

I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity. ~ Ernest Rutherford

From the results so far obtained it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the long-range atoms arising from collision of alpha particles with nitrogen are not nitrogen atoms but probably atoms of hydrogen, or atoms of mass 2. If this be the case, we must conclude that the nitrogen atom is disintegrated under the intense forces developed in a close collision with a swift alpha particle, and that the hydrogen atom which is liberated formed a constituent part of the nitrogen nucleus. ~ Ernest Rutherford

Physics is the only real science. The rest are just stamp collecting. ~ Ernest Rutherford

A good scientific theory should be explicable to a barmaid. ~ Ernest Rutherford

I congratulate you both on a fine piece of work which I am sure will ultimately prove of importance. I am personally very much interested in your results ... In the past I have tried a number of experiments ... but without any success. ~ Ernest Rutherford

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment. ~ Ernest Rutherford

The man who obeys is nearly always better than the man who commands. ~ Ernest Renan

If there's empty spaces in your heart,
They'll make you think it's wrong,
Like having empty spaces,
Means you never can be strong,
But I've learned that all these spaces,
Means there's room enough to grow,
And the people that once filled them,
Were always meant to be let go,
And all these empty spaces,
Create a strange sort of pull,
That attract so many people,
You wouldn't meet if they were full,
So if you're made of empty spaces,
Don't ever think it's wrong,
Because maybe they're just empty,
Until the right person comes along. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

Screw you, Aech! And your dead grandma! ~ Ernest Cline

He took the bait like a male and he pulls like a male and his fight has no panic in it.
I wonder if he has any plans or if he is just as desperate as I sin? ~ Ernest Hemingway,

We can conclude that a project as grand as the scientific-mythical construction of victory over human limitation is not something that can be programmed by science. Even more, it comes from the vital energies of masses of men sweating within the nightmare of creation-and it is not even in man's hands to program. Who knows what form the forward momentum of life will take in the time ahead or what use it will make of our anguished searching. The most that any one of us can seem to do is to fashion something-an object or ourselves-and drop it into the confusion, make an offering of it, so to speak, to the life force. ~ Ernest Becker

If you meet 29th February, think of a distinctive footprint. If you meet 29th February, think of something unique for it is the only day that defines a year as a leap year. It is the only day that makes February truly unique. If you meet 29th February, live and leave a distinctive footprint for you shall seldom meet such a day ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I would not wish to bring either a son or a daughter into this world as this world is. And also you take all the love I have to give ~ Ernest Hemingway,

It is certain that this is not only good which the Almighty has done, but that it is best; He hath reckoned all your steps to heaven. ~ Samuel Rutherford

No catalogue of horrors ever kept men from war. Before the war you always think that it's not you that dies. But you will die, brother, if you go to it long enough. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

The people you work with should be either fully trusted or not trusted at all, so one should decide, who deserves to be trusted ~ Ernest Hemingway,

To win a war, we must kill our enemies. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

And so, beginning with the small early frustrations and deprivations, the child is helped to govern himself. his ego develops by learning to regulate his own food intake and feces evacuation: he has to learn to adapt to a social schedule, to an external measure of time, in place of a biological schedule of internal urges. In all this he makes a bitter discovery: that he is no longer himself, just by seeking pleasure. There may be more excitement in the world but the fun keep getting interrupted. For some strange reason the mother doesn't share his glee over a bowel movement on the sofa. The child finds that he has to "earn" the mother's love by performing in a certain way. He comes to realize that he has to abandon the idea of "total excitement" and "uninterrupted fun," if he wants to keep a secure background of love from the mother. This is what Alfred Adler meant when he spoke of the child's need for affection as the "lever" of his education. The child learns to accept frustrations so long as the total relationship is not endangered. This is what the psychoanalytic word "ambivalence" so nicely covers: the child may hesitate between giving up what has previously been an assured satisfaction, and proceeding to a new type of conduct which will be rewarded by a new kind of acceptance. Does he want to keep the breast instead of switching to the bottle? He finds that if he makes this switch he gets a special cooing of praise and a little extra attention. Ambivalence describes the ~ Ernest Becker

Nietzsche said without music, life would be a mistake. To me, without books, life would be a mistake. ~ Ernest Gaines

The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life. ~ Ernest Renan

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

No one in the world ever gets what thet want, ans that is beautiful. ~ Ernest Cline

Were I so tall as to reach the pole or grasp the ocean at a span, I must be measured by my soul. The mind is the standard of the man. ~ William Ernest Henley

He who ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city, ~ Ernest Hemingway,

I watched him walk back to the cafe holding his paper. I rather liked him and evidently she led him quite a life. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

The trouble with those people is that they think all the best things are made in the cities. It is not so. ~ Ernest Poole

A nation has a soul, a spiritual principle. One is in the past, the other in the present. One is the possession of a rich legacy of memories; the other is the desire to live together and to value the common heritage. ~ Ernest Renan

There is always a finishing line for everyone though we may not all have the same finishing line. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

we may experience an absolute positive change and do the undone if we shift our thoughts from descriptive thinking to prescriptive thinking ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Printing ballots in multiple languages costs millions of dollars every year. It also discourages immigrants from integrating into American society and gaining the benefits that come from speaking English. ~ Ernest Istook

Know who you are and be who you are insofar as it is deem fit, for there is nothing so contemptuous to be who you are! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I remember the first time I walked on that stage. Maxine and I were just a duet at the time, and we walked on that stage and did 'Looking Back to See.' Ernest Tubb introduced us at the time. I remember my knees were shaking. ~ Jim Ed Brown

It's hard to keep up with your children,' he said. 'It means keeping up with everything new. And you stay in your rut and then it's too late. Before you know it you are old. ~ Ernest Poole

The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that I ever bore; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor. ~ Samuel Rutherford

The judgment day will determine who did what and what did who! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Today is Sunday
It will be Sunday forever
Black birds fly over
In this one instance
May we never recover
From this one new something
We are just starting to discover ~ Lourd Ernest H. De Veyra

Be patient, but persist with a well balanced patience and impatience! Take it step by step and keep it cool to the end! ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

pain reveals secretes. ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Academic environments are generally characterised by the presence of peole who claim to understand more than in fact they do. Linguistic Philosophy has produced a great revolution, generating people who claim not to understand when in fact they do. Some achieve great virtuosity at it. Any beginner in philosophy can manage not to understand, say, Hegel, but I have heard people who were so advanced that they knew how not to understand writers of such limpid clarity as Bertrand Russell or A.J. Ayer. ~ Ernest Gellner