Stars have a life cycle much like animals. They get born, they grow, they go through a definite internal development, and finally they die, to give back the material of which they are made so that new stars may live
Hans BetheRead
I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving and manufacturing further nuclear weapons - and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote urges scientists worldwide to stop working on nuclear and other mass destruction weapons.
Hans Bethe's quote reflects a humanitarian plea for the scientific community to halt the advancement of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. It emphasizes the urgency and moral responsibility that scientists bear in regard to their work's implications on global security and human life, calling for a collective effort to redirect their talents towards peaceful endeavors rather than destructive technologies.
Themes
Nuclear WeaponsScientistsPeaceMass DestructionHumanitarian
In practice
Example use cases
In a conference focused on international disarmament, one could invoke this quote to emphasize the responsibility of scientists.
More from Hans Bethe
All quotes →Similar quotes
Nature allows only experimental situations to occur which can be described within the framework of the formalism of quantum mechanics
Werner HeisenbergRead
The primitive fight-or-flight regions of our mammalian brains react to immediate danger. We instinctively run from an avalanche but the gradual retreat of a glacier, the portent of the far greater danger of rising temperatures and rising oceans, just doesn't get through to us in the same way.
David OlusogaRead
Odd arrangements and funny solutions are the proof of evolution - paths that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural process, constrained by history, follows perforce.
Stephen Jay GouldRead
The doubter is a true man of science: he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science.
Claude BernardRead
It now appears that the way the universe began can indeed be determined, using imaginary time.
Stephen HawkingRead
If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.
Richard P. FeynmanRead