Ernest Rutherford Science Quotations

If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.

You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 1012 to 1.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.

All of physics is either impossible or trivial. It is impossible until you understand it, and then it becomes trivial.

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

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)

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, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than about 10-12 to 1.

[From uranium] there are present at least two distinct types of radiation one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.

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