Werner Heisenberg Quotes

Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological nation plans for it.

I have to bring to your notice a terrifying reality: with the development of nuclear weapons Man has acquired, for the first time in history, the technical means to destroy the whole of civilization in a single act.

I feel impelled to speak today in a language that in a sense is new-one which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use. That new language is the language of atomic warfare.

In a world which is armed to its teeth with nuclear weapons, every quarrel or difference of opinion may lead to violence of a kind quite different from what is possible today.

This means that the only function of nuclear weapons, while they exist, is to deter a nuclear attack.

The human species really could have faced global thermonuclear war. During seventy years of Cold War we grew used to it.

A nuclear weapon is not just a football that you can use at will.

I would not recommend the use of any atomic weapon, no matter how small, when both sides have the power to destroy the world.

Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident, miscalculation or madness.

We do not believe that a nuclear war should be fought and we do not believe that a nuclear war can be won.

The atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of future war unendurable.

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and of Hiroshima.

For me, one of the big things I really worried about a lot was nuclear war growing up.

This is the reality of nuclear weapons: they may trigger a world war; a war which, unlike previous ones, destroys all of civilization.

Although September 11 was horrible, it didn't threaten the survival of the human race, like nuclear weapons do.

My feelings of revulsion and foreboding about nuclear weapons had not changed an iota since 1945, and they have never left me. Since I was 14, the overriding objective of my life has been to prevent the occurrence of nuclear war.

The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the United States reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't.

The whole idea of a nuclear system is to have a deterrent where we decide if we're going to use it.

One nuclear war is going to be the last nuclear - the last war, frankly, if it really gets out of hand. And I just don't think we ought to be prepared to accept that sort of thing.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country.

I can't understand why anyone would want nuclear warheads. If you shoot them off, it's not like you can take over that country-all you do is kill millions of people.

It's a near miracle that nuclear war has so far been avoided.

All mankind is now learning that these nuclear weapons can only serve to destroy, never become beneficial.

Growing up during the Cold War, I remember the seemingly imminent threat of nuclear war. In primary school we were taught to 'duck-and-cover' for protection. But even as children hiding under wooden desks, we recognized the inadequacies of this strategy.