Top 40 Edward Teller Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “When you get to the end of all the light you know and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly.”

— Edward Teller

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2. “The science of today is the technology of tomorrow.”

— Edward Teller

3. “Today’s science is tomorrow’s technology.”

— Edward Teller

4. “Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not.”

— Edward Teller

5. “The extinction of the human race will come from its inability to EMOTIONALLY comprehend the exponential function.”

— Edward Teller

6. “Physics without mathematics is meaningless.”

— Edward Teller

7. “No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.”

— Edward Teller

8. “Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought.”

— Edward Teller

9. “Secrecy, once accepted, becomes an addiction.”

— Edward Teller

10. “Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.”

— Edward Teller

11. “There’s no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool.”

— Edward Teller

12. “The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.”

— Edward Teller

13. “Secrecy in science does not work. Withholding information does more damage to us than to our competitors.”

— Edward Teller

14. “Two paradoxes are better than one they may even suggest a solution.”

— Edward Teller

15. “I believe in excellence. It is a basic need of every human soul. All of us can be excellent, because, fortunately, we are exceedingly diverse in our ambitions and talents.”

— Edward Teller

16. “The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy; the best weapon of a democracy is openness.”

— Edward Teller

17. “When you’re certain you cannot be fooled, you become easy to fool.”

— Edward Teller

18. “One may say that predictions are dangerous particularly for the future. If the danger involved in a prediction is not incurred, no consequence follows and the uncertainty principle is not violated.”

— Edward Teller

19. “I hate doubt, yet I am certain that doubt is the only way to approach anything worth believing in.”

— Edward Teller

20. “My experience has been in a short 77 years that in the end when you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”

— Edward Teller

21. “The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate... Hydrogen bombs will not produce themselves.”

— Edward Teller

22. “Had we not pursued the hydrogen bomb, there is a very real threat that we would now all be speaking Russian. I have no regrets.”

— Edward Teller

23. “A state-of-the-art calculation requires 100 hours of CPU time on the state-of-the-art computer, independent of the decade.”

— Edward Teller

24. “Most people avoid thinking if they can, some of us are addicted to thinking, but Von Neumann actually enjoyed thinking, maybe even to the exclusion of everything else.”

— Edward Teller

25. “I believe in evil. It is the property of all those who are certain of truth. Despair and fanaticism are only differing manifestations of evil.”

— Edward Teller

26. “There is no case where ignorance should be preferred to knowledge – especially if the knowledge is terrible.”

— Edward Teller

27. “I am guilty of the great crime of optimism.”

— Edward Teller

28. “If anyone wants a hole in the ground, nuclear explosives can make big holes.”

— Edward Teller

29. “No, I’m the infamous Edward Teller.”

— Edward Teller

30. “Society’s emissions of carbon dioxide may or may not turn out to have something significant to do with global warming-the jury is still out.”

— Edward Teller

31. “If there ever was a misnomer, it is “exact science.” Science has always been full of mistakes. The present day is no exception. And our mistakes are good mistakes; they require a genius to correct. Of course, we do not see our own mistakes.”

— Edward Teller

32. “There is a time for scientists and movie stars and those who have flown the atlantic to restrain their opinions lest they be taken more seriously than they should be.”

— Edward Teller

33. “The eyes of childhood are magnifying lenses.”

— Edward Teller

34. “We must learn to live with contradictions, because they lead to deeper and more effective understanding.”

— Edward Teller

35. “Could we have avoided the tragedy of Hiroshima? Could we have started the atomic age with clean hands? No one knows. No one can find out.”

— Edward Teller

36. “I believe in good. It is an ephemeral and elusive quality. It is the center of my beliefs, but it cannot be strengthened by talking about it.”

— Edward Teller

37. “I claim that relativity and the rest of modern physics is not complicated. It can be explained very simply. It is only unusual or, put another way, it is contrary to common sense.”

— Edward Teller

38. “In our educational institutions applied science may almost be described as a “no-man’s land.””

— Edward Teller

39. “A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.”

— Edward Teller

40. “I think that intellectuals who end up in hell will have to read page proofs and check indexes there.”

— Edward Teller

41. “When Columbus took off, the purpose was to improve trade relations with China. That problem has not been solved to this very day, but just look at the by-products.”

— Edward Teller

42. “I tried to contribute to the defeat of the Soviets. If I contributed 1%, it is 1% of something enormous.”

— Edward Teller

43. “Nationalism has little to contribute today except further suffering.”

— Edward Teller