Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The author realized the world was destined for sorrow after a specific scientific event.
In plain terms
After the test, I knew the world was in trouble.
What can you take from it?
Scientific breakthroughs can carry dark implications.

Where it applies

  • weapon development
  • scientific ethics
  • moment of discovery

Putting it to work

  • assessing long-term impact
  • ethical review

Questions to consider

  • How do you handle bad news from progress?
  • What was the moment you knew something would go wrong?

Another view

The outcome might have been different with different policies.

More from Leo Szilard

  1. Even if we accept, as the basic tenet of true democracy, that one moron is equal to one genius, is it necessary to go a further step and hold that two morons a…

    Permalink to quote #3
  2. I sometimes have the feeling that I have lived through all this before and, in a sense, I have. I was sixteen years old when the first World War broke out, and…

    Permalink to quote #5
  3. A great power imposes the obligation of exercising restraint, and we did not live up to this obligation. I think this affected many of the scientists in a subt…

    Permalink to quote #2

Related quotes

  1. Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.

    Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter quote #2
  2. It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.

    Sam HarrisSam Harris quote #2
  3. This has not been a scientist's war; it has been a war in which all have had a part. The scientists, burying their old professional competition in the demand o…

    Vannevar BushVannevar Bush quote #3