Top 50 Quotes From Oppenheimer

Kitty: You think because you let them tar and feather you that the world will forgive you? They won't.

Niels: [From Trailer] You are the man who gave them the power to destroy themselves. And the world is not prepared.

Kurt: Trees are the most inspiring structures.

Kitty: Sixteen years ago- seventeen years ago, my mistake.
[she pauses]
Kitty: Sorry, eighteen.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: These things are hard on your heart.

Kitty: The world is changing. Reforming. This is your moment.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: They need us.
Luis: Until they don't.

Lewis: Amateurs seek the sun. Get eaten. Power stays in the shadows.

Albert: When they've punished you enough, they'll serve you salmon and potato salad, make speeches, give you a medal, and pat you in the back telling all is forgiven. Just remember, it won't be for you... it would be for them

Isidor: They need us for who we are, so be yourself... only better.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Mr. President. I feel that I have blood on my hands.
Harry: [tauntingly pulls out his pocket square and waves it in front of Oppenheimer] You think anyone in Hiroshima or Nagasaki gives a shit who built the bomb? They care who dropped it. I did. Hiroshima isn't about you.
Harry: [after Oppenheimer leaves] Don't let that crybaby back in here.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: [At their first meeting] Are you married?
Kitty: Not very much.

Harry: I hear you're leaving Los Alamos. What should we do with it?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Give it back to the Indians.

Leslie: And Robert? Try not to blow up the world.

Caption: Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.

Leslie: A Nobel Prize for making a bomb?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.

Kitty: You don't get to commit sin, and then ask all of us to feel sorry for you when there are consequences.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Since when are you British?
Klaus: Since Hitler told me I wasn't German.

Niels: Is it big enough?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: To end the war?
Niels: To end all war.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

Niels: We have to make the politicians understand this isn't a new weapon. It's a new world. I'll be out there doing what I can but you, you are an American Prometheus. The man who gave them the power to destroy themselves. And they'll respect that. And your works really begins soon.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Is anyone ever going to tell the truth about what's happening here?

J. Robert Oppenheimer: They won't fear it until they understand it. And they won't understand it until they've used it. Theory will take you only so far.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: [From the first trailer] We imagine a future, and our imaginings horrify us.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Why would they care what I do?
Ernest: Because you're not just self-important, you're actually important.

Niels: The important thing isn't can you read music, it's can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Yes, I can.

[Repeated line]
Ernest: Theory will take you only so far.

Leslie: Are you saying that there's a chance that when we push that button... we destroy the world?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: The chances are near zero...
Leslie: Near zero?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: What do you want from theory alone?
Leslie: Zero would be nice!

Niels: The power you are about to reveal will forever outlive the Nazis, and the world is not prepared.
J. Robert Oppenheimer: You can't lift the stone without being ready for the snake that's revealed.
Niels: We have to make the politicians understand, this isn't a new weapon, it is a new world.

Jean: Don't alienate the only people in the world that understand what you do. One day you may need them.

Kitty: All it needs is a saloon.

Leslie: What do we call the test?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Batter my heart, three-person'd God.
Leslie: What?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Trinity.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Pillar of Fire...

Isidor: A prophet isn't allowed to be wrong. Not once.

Isidor: You drop a bomb, and it falls on the just and the unjust. I don't wish the culmination of three centuries of physics to be a weapon of mass destruction.

Senate: Is it possible they didn't talk about you at all. Is it possible they talked about something more important.

Jean: At least you didn't bring me flowers.
[Oppenheimer then reaches into his jacket, and pulls out a bunch of flowers]

J. Robert Oppenheimer: I know what it means if the Nazis have a Bomb!

J. Robert Oppenheimer: I don't know if we can be trusted with such a weapon. But I know the Nazis can't.

Lewis: The man who moved the Earth.

Haakon: Do stars die?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Well, if they do, they'd cool, then collapse. In fact, the bigger the star, the more violent its demise. Their gravity gets so concentrated, it swallows everything.

Edward: Why would we move out to the middle of the desert for two to three years?
Leslie: Why? How about because this is the most important fucking thing to ever happen in the history of the world!

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Why limit yourself to one dogma?
Jean: You're a physicist. You pick and choose rules? Or do you use the discipline to channel your energies into progress?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: I like a little wiggle room. You always tow the party line?
Jean: I like my wiggle room, too.

Kitty: Can you explain quantum mechanics to me?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Well, this glass, this drink, this counter top, uhh.. our bodies, all of it. It's mostly empty space. Groupings of tiny energy waves bound together.
Kitty: By what?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: Forces of attraction strong enough to convince us
[that]
J. Robert Oppenheimer: matter is solid, to stop my body passing through yours.
[gently places his palm against hers]

Lewis: Genius is no guarantee of wisdom. How could this man who saw so much be so blind?

Kitty: The truly vindictive are patient as saints.

Albert: Robert, this is not mine, it's yours.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world...
Albert: I remember it well. What of it?
J. Robert Oppenheimer: I believe we did.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: Well, in one hour and fifty eight minutes, we'll know!

Edward: Would the Japanese surrender if they knew what was coming?