Quote #18
There is no democracy in physics. We can't say that some second-rate guy has as much right to opinion as Fermi.
Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.
More from Enrico Fermi
- If Fermi had been born a few years earlier, one could well imagine him discovering Rutherford's atomic nucleus, and then developing Bohr's …
- He was simply unable to let things be foggy. Since they always are, this kept him pretty active.
- Some recent work by E. Fermi and L. Szilard, which has been communicated to me in manuscript, leads me to expect that the element uranium m…
- A three standard deviation is a statistical fluctuation; a five standard deviation effect is a miracle. Quoted by Owen Chamberlain.
- Whatever nature has in store for mankind, unpleasant as it may be, men must accept, for ignorance is never better than knowledge.
- The fundamental point in fabricating a chain reacting machine is of course to see to it that each fission produces a certain number of neut…
- Never underestimate the joy people derive from hearing something they already know.
- Never be first; try to be second.