Enrico Fermi

"I would like to ask for thoughts about why we haven't observed any alien civilizations yet."

"Whatever the ups and downs of detail within science, the great edifice of adaptation of means to ends which so awes us in all living creatures has been reared by a process of trial and error."

"One might hope that as the universe is comprehensible, so it is also not unnecessarily complicated."

"The main innovation of mathematics in recent times is the discovery of how to make use of the abstract."

"Since I do not foresee that atomic energy is to be a great boon for a long time, I have to say that for the present it is a menace."

"It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science."

"The physicist has much more to learn by watching nature than by listening to his colleagues."

"I tried to think what was the worst possible accident that could happen at Hanford, and I thought about it very hard."

"If I could remember the names of all these particles, I would have been a botanist."

"Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a kind of elegant messiness."

"The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy."

"There's a good deal to be said about not knowing too much at an early stage in one's career."

"In science, the truth is the same whether you believe it or not."

"Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it."

"Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in language comprehensible to everyone."

"I think one should always make a reservation in advance; that is, one should not assume that something is impossible without having taken the time to look for counter-examples."

"The real problem of humanity is the following: we have Paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and godlike technology."

"When you put the question 'Are we alone?' you immediately presume we exist, and that's perhaps the first miracle."

"Scientific progress makes moral progress a necessity; for if man's power is increased, the checks upon him must be increased in the same proportion."

"An adequate scientific education should leave one deeply aware of the fact that there are deep mysteries around us, and more to discover."

"The apparent contradiction between the enormity of the universe and the tininess of man is resolved in the fact that man is the only means by which the universe comes to know itself."

"Nothing is easier than to set the world on fire with big words, but it is hard to tell what you actually know."

"A person who is not curious about natural phenomena is not a real scientist."

"We must take into account that we are not only thinking of human beings on Earth but also creatures that might exist elsewhere in the universe."

"The truth is that it is impossible to prove that something has not happened."

"I am a religious person. I believe that the universe has a rational order."

"It is the tension between different ideas that drives progress in science and in life."

"How do you know something is true? Well, you test it again and again."

"In science, there are no shortcuts to truth. You must do the work."

"The most important tool a scientist has is his intuition, but it must be tempered with rigor."