Talk:Robert Oppenheimer

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Isnt "I am become" gramatically incorrect? So should either be revised or [sic]'d.

This was the poetic form used in the 1944 translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, which is the one Oppenheimer was probably most familiar with. ~ Zeal 17:01, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

I have corrected minor errors in his famous quote from the Bhagavad Gita. While the scripture may refer to Krishna and Arjun, Oppenheimer said 'Vishnu' and 'the Prince'. I have corrected this in accordance with this source: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Movies/Movie8.shtml

According to his Wikipedia page, Oppenheimer read the Bhagavad Gita in its original Sanskrit, not a translation.—This unsigned comment is by 69.74.77.14 (talk • contribs) .

He may have done so, but he is quoted as quoting from the Prabhavananda - Isherwood translation, and I believe he did so in a video interview. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 20:34, 17 July 2015 (UTC)

The 1954 edition of the Prabhavananda-Isherwood translation is available online at http://estudantedavedanta.net/Bhagavad-Gita-1954.pdf (I couldn't find a copy of the 1944 first edition) and the reading on Page 94 is "I am come as Time, the waster of the peoples", so it seems likely that Oppenheimer is not quoting their translation.

Unsourced

• If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no'; if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no'. The Buddha has given such answers when interrogated as to the conditions of a man's self after his death; but they are not familiar answers for the tradition of seventeenth and eighteenth century science. --> the source for this quote is written here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_science#cite_note-21 . I have downloaded the article and checked myself. it is written in page 40 of the article

• The general notions about human understanding… which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of or new. Even in our own culture they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find [in modern physics] is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom.

• The juxtaposition of Western civilization's most terrifying scientific achievement with the most dazzling description of the mystical experience given to us by the Bhagavad Gita, India's greatest literary monument.

• Truth, not a pet, is man's best friend.

• Genius sees the answer before the question.
  • The fictional (and hallucinatory) character "William Parcher" in A Beautiful Mind quotes Oppenheimer as saying this.

• No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows. ~J. Robert Oppenheimer

article name

Shouldn't the name of this page match the name of the article in Wikipedia? (J. Robert Oppenheimer) 188.4.98.211 17:22, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

unreliable quote

Well — yes. In modern times, of course.

Answer to a student at Rochester University who asked whether the bomb exploded at Alamogordo was the first one to be detonated, as quoted in Doomsday, 1999 A.D. (1982) by Charles Berlitz, p. 129

Charles Berlitz wrote crazy books about Atlantis and the Bermuda triangle. In this particular book, about how the world was going to end in 1999 (great thesis, that), he claims Oppenheimer said this and doesn't give any citation, even a date. He's the only original source that has ever claimed Oppenheimer said this (there are plenty psuedohistorical websites and books that repeat it, all after Berlitz). It's complete nonsense on every level, repeated only by some of the silliest sites on the Internet (those which believe that aliens gave people nuclear technology in the ancient past). Does it really deserve inclusion here? --217.17.137.178 19:13, 15 December 2013 (UTC)

Section from Talk:Harry S. Truman

Copied from Talk:Harry S. Truman

"Oppenheimer when he went into Truman's Office with Dean Acheson said to the latter, wringing his hands:"I have blood on my hands". Truman later said to Acheson: "Never bring that fucking cretin in here again. He didn't drop the bomb. I did. That kind of weepiness makes me sick." Source: Jean-Jacques Salomon Science et Politique (1970) - * History in Quotations, Page 882

This quote appears in that book and cites something from 1970. I have not seen the original source or what it cites. Harizotoh9 (talk) 05:57, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

This is an interesting quote and should be added to the page and also to the page on Oppenheimer. A quick seach and I found some sources on Google Books. Harizotoh9, please add it to the article. --ო ~ ^#SheSaid 09:05, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Nonsense quotes

There are a lot of fake quotes attributed to Oppenheimer out there by unreliable authors in unreliable sources. None of these are serious sources on Oppenheimer. Some of them are likely entirely fake.

• There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.
  • Quoted at Vision '65 "New Challenges for Human Communications" (21-23 October 1965) and published in v 65: New Challenges for human communications, Volume 4, International Center for the Typographic Arts, Southern Illinois University (1965), p. 221

• It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.
  • As quoted in Play to Live (1982) by Alan Watts

• Well — yes. In modern times, of course.
  • Answer to a student at Rochester University who asked whether the bomb exploded at Alamogordo was the first one to be detonated, as quoted in Doomsday, 1999 A.D. (1982) by Charles Berlitz, p. 129

69.136.106.201 17:56, 24 December 2022 (UTC)

Quotes

Quotes that could possibly be added:

• Later he called the Bhagavad Gita "the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.
  • Royal, Denise The Story of J Robert Oppenheimer St. Martin's Press New York 1969p. 54

• The general notions about human understanding ... which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or new. Even in our own culture, they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom.
  • Capra, Fritjof The Tao of physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism New York: Bantam Books, 1977.p. 18

• Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries.
  • as quoted in Londhe, S. (2008). A tribute to Hinduism: Thoughts and wisdom spanning continents and time about India and her culture