Ernest Rutherford Quotes

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

If your result needs a statistician then you should design a better experiment.

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

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

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.

Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.

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.