J. Robert Oppenheimer Quote

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita.... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.


Recalling the explosion of the first atomic bomb near Alamogordo, New Mexico [July 16, 1945]. From Len Giovanitti and Fred Freed, The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965)


We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu...

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu...

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu...

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu...