Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the complexity of human errors and the strength of those who take responsibility for them.
J. Robert Oppenheimer's quote reflects the idea that recognizing and correcting one's mistakes is a significant undertaking that requires time, introspection, and courage. It suggests that a person who is willing to engage deeply with their errors and work diligently over years to rectify them demonstrates profound character and resilience, distinguishing them as exceptional individuals.
In practice
During a graduation speech focused on personal growth and accountability.
Bertrand Russell had given a talk on the then new quantum mechanics, of whose wonders he was most appreciative. He spoke hard and earnestly in the New Lecture Hall. And when he was done, Professor Whitehead, who presided, thanked him for his efforts, and not least for 'leaving the vast darkness of the subject unobscured'.
There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.
It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.
Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. (quoting the Bhagavad-Gita after witnessing the first Nuclear explosion.)
[About the great synthesis of atomic physics in the 1920s:] It was a heroic time. It was not the doing of any one man; it involved the collaboration of scores of scientists from many different lands. But from the first to last the deeply creative, subtle and critical spirit of Niels Bohr guided, restrained, deepened and finally transmuted the enterprise.
'It worked.' (said after witnessing the first atomic detonation).
You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will.
Treat every piece of advice as a gift or a compliment and simply say, βThank you.
"He sido un hombre afortunado en la vida, nada me ha sido facil." "I've been a fortunate man in life, nothing has come easy"
Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
I knew that my staying up would not change the election result if I were defeated, while if elected I had a hard day ahead of me. So I thought a night's rest was best in any event.
I am of the opinion, and even more so the older I get, that it is more difficult to have hope than it is to despair. And I mean this in the sense that in order to have hope you must acknowledge the despair and then you have to get beyond it. Taken from a radio interview given on BBC Radio 4's Open Book
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