Ernest Rutherford Quotes about Science

All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.

We haven't got the money, so we've got to think.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

The only possible conclusion the social sciences can draw is: some do, some don't.

Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

Now I know what the atom looks like.

The energy produced by the breaking down of the atom is a very poor kind of thing. Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.

I am a great believer in the simplicity of things and as you probably know I am inclined to hang on to broad & simple ideas like grim death until evidence is too strong for my tenacity.

You know, I am sorry for the poor fellows that haven't got labs to work in.

I've just finished reading some of my early papers, and you know, when I'd finished I said to myself, 'Rutherford, my boy, you used to be a damned clever fellow.' (1911)

I have to keep going, as there are always people on my track. I have to publish my present work as rapidly as possible in order to keep in the race. The best sprinters in this road of investigation are Becquerel and the Curies.

You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.

Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.

The year 1896 ... marked the beginning of what has been aptly termed the heroic age of Physical Science. Never before in the history of physics has there been witnessed such a period of intense activity when discoveries of fundamental importance have followed one another with such bewildering rapidity.

[From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.