How we cite our quotes: Chapter name.(Chapter Number).Paragraph
Quote #10
"Hahn was completely shattered by the news [about Hiroshima], and said he felt personally responsible," Rittner reported. "He told me that he had originally contemplated suicide when we realized the terrible potentialities of his discovery and he felt that now these had been realized and he was to blame." (Reaction Begins.(34).26)
We like to think scientists are always pursuing the dream of making a ground-breaking discoveries, but what about what happens when a discovery leads to something like the atomic bomb? It must feel awful to have your work used for such terrible purposes.
Quote #11
"We keep saying, 'We have no other course,'" lamented Truman's advisor David Lilienthal. "What we should be saying is, 'We are not bright enough to see any other course.'" (Epilogue.49)
This is a bit depressing: They've just proven they're some of the greatest scientific minds in the world, and yet they still have huge limitations. The course being discussed, if you remember, is whether or not to build the hydrogen bomb, which is capable of even more destruction than the uranium and plutonium bombs. If only they could have seen a different course of action.