Enrico Fermi

Don't ever tell anybody anything, or you'll never get anything done.

There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

Before I came here I was not only a little confused about the subject, but also had some doubts about my confusion.

Never underestimate the joy of being proved wrong.

The only trouble is that the damn stuff is radioactive.

The fundamental problem is that we do not know enough to do a good job.

It is not enough to invent. One must also know how to sell.

Where are they? (Referring to extraterrestrial intelligence)

If I could remember the names of all these particles, I'd be a botanist.

Young man, I am not trying to shake your faith in God, but in the physicists.

The only way to learn physics is to do physics.

Whatever you do, don't let them make you a manager.

It is much more important to be able to do something new than to be able to talk about it.

The greatest discovery yet to be made is the discovery of what we do not know.

The purpose of science is to make sense of the world, not to explain it away.

I would rather be ignorant and learn, than be learned and not know.

The more you know, the more you realize you don't know.

The best way to understand something is to try to explain it to someone else.

Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.