In fact, death seems to have been a rather late invention in evolution. One can go a long way in evolution before encountering an authentic corpse.
George WaldRead
The only use for an atomic bomb is to keep somebody else from using one. It can give us no protection - only the doubtful satisfaction of retaliation...
Interpretation
What this quote means
An atomic bomb serves no real protective purpose but acts as a deterrent against its use by others.
This quote by George Wald reflects on the paradox of nuclear weapons, suggesting that while they are meant to provide security, their existence ultimately fosters a sense of doubt and a questionable assurance of deterrence rather than true safety. It highlights the moral and philosophical dilemmas of possessing such destructive capabilities, implying that the only beneficial use lies in preventing others from deploying them, rather than guaranteeing protection.
Themes
NuclearDeterrenceSafetyViolenceRetaliation
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about global disarmament, one could use this quote to emphasize the illusion of safety provided by nuclear weapons.
More from George Wald
All quotes βI have lived much of my life among molecules. They are good company. I tell my students to try to know molecules, so well that when they have some question involving molecules, they can ask themselves, What would I do if I were that molecule? I tell them, Try to feel like a molecule; and if you work hard, who knows? Some day you may get to feel like a big molecule!
George WaldRead
Our challenge is to give what account we can of what becomes of life in the solar system, this corner of the universe that is our home; and, most of all, what becomes of men-all men, of all nations, colors, and creeds. This has become one world, a world for all men. It is only such a world that can now offer us life, and the chance to go on.
George WaldRead
Evolution advances, not by a priori design, but by the selection of what works best out of whatever choices offer. We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.
George WaldRead
Nuclear weapons offer us nothing but a balance of terror, and a balance of terror is still terror.
George WaldRead
I think if a physician wrote on a death certificate that old age was the cause of death, he'd be thrown out of the union. There is always some final event, some failure of an organ, some last attack of pneumonia, that finishes off a life. No one dies of old age.
George WaldRead
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To rest the case for equal treatment of national or racial minorities on the assumption that they do not differ from other men is implicitly to admit that factual inequality would justify unequal treatment, and the proof that some differences do, in fact, exist would not be long in forthcoming. It is of the essence of the demand for equality before the law that people should be treated alike in spite of the fact that they are different.
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He who looks sinward has his back to God-he who looks Godward has his back to sin.
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