A Quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Quote Topics

Science Action Always Both Edge He Man Live Man Mystery Surrounded

Quote Author

J. Robert Oppenheimer
American - Physicist
April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967

Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it. Both, as a measure of their creation, have always had to do with the harmonization of what is new with what is familiar, with the balance between novelty and synthesis, with the struggle to make partial order in total chaos.... This cannot be an easy life.

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Every man is half God, half man; he is both spirit and flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed: It is universal.

Nikos Kazantzakis

The heart of it all is mystery, and science is at best only the peripheral trappings to that mystery--a ragged barbed-wire fence through which mystery travels, back and forth, unencumbered by anything so frail as man's knowledge.

Rick Bass

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

James Baldwin

The great man of science, unless he is also a philosopher, ... deserves the title of genius as little as the man of action.

Otto Weininger

By His gracious condescension God became man and is called man for the sake of man and by exchanging His condition for ours revealed the power that elevates man to God through his love for God and brings God down to man because of His love for man. By this blessed inversion, man is made God by divinization and God is made man by hominization. For the Word of God and God wills always and in all things to accomplish the mystery of His embodiment.

Maximus the Confessor

for in the absence of God he had found Man. Man killing man, man helping man, both of them anonymous: the scourge and the blessing.

Guillermo del Toro

The manager-leader of the future should combine in one personality the robust, realistic quality of the man of action with the insight of the artist, the religious leader, the poet, who explains man to himself. The man of action alone or the man of contemplation alone will not be enough; these two qualities together are required.

David Lilienthal

To study the meaning of man and of life — I am making significant progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery: if you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say that you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery, because I want to be a man.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

I live in New York City, and I'm making huge action movies. The people that make huge action movies live in L.A., and they're surrounded by other people who make huge action movies. I'm surrounded by people making documentaries!

Doug Liman

The curse of the intelligent man is that he will always find himself surrounded by the ignorant. The measure of the intelligent man is determined by his tolerance toward them.

Derek R. Audette

A Muslim woman was found in adultery or fornication and we know that there could be no pregnancy without the agency of a man, unless we are dealing with the virgin birth. Yet no man is charged with this crime. Where is the man in this case of adultery or fornication? Why isn't he being stoned? There is science today that can prove whether the man she claims is the father of her unborn child is actually so. So, if the law was fair, then, it would be carried out on both.

Louis Farrakhan

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible.

Jacob Bronowski

We live at the edge of the world, so we live on the edge. Kiwis will always sacrifice money and security for adventure and challenge.

Lucy Lawless

Relationship is action, is it not? Action has meaning only in relationship; without understanding relationship, action on any level will only breed conflict. The understanding of relationship is infinitely more important than the search for any plan of action. The ideology, the pattern for action, prevents action. Action based on ideology hinders the understanding of relationship between man and man.