"For years I devoted more than half my time, perhaps, to giving hundreds of lectures [on peace]... But in the earlier years, especially to studying international affairs and social, political and economic theory to the extent that enabled me ultimately to feel that I was speaking with the same authority as when I talked about science. This is what my wife said to me back around 1946, that if I wanted to be effective, I’d have to reach the point where I could speak with authority about these matters..."
Linus Pauling. Interview with Wayne Reynolds, American Academy of Achievement. November 11, 1990.

"When the atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima and then at Nagasaki, I was immediately asked, within a month or two...to give a talk...about atomic bombs. My talk, as I recall, was entirely on what the atom is, what the atomic nucleus is, what nuclear fission is... A couple of days after my talk, there was a man in my office from the FBI saying, ‘Who told you how much plutonium there is in an atomic bomb?’ And I said, ‘Nobody told me, I figured it out.’ And he went away and that was the end of that."
Linus Pauling. Interview with Wayne Reynolds, American Academy of Achievement. November 11, 1990.

"Originally it was a petition by American scientists, but eventually it became a petition by world scientists. I think it was about nine thousand that...my wife and I gave to Dag Hammarskjöld, and ultimately about thirteen thousand scientists all over the world had signed this petition."
Linus Pauling. Interview with Wayne Reynolds, American Academy of Achievement. November 11, 1990.

"The McCarthy period came along...and many of the other scientists who had been working on these same lines gave up. Probably saying ‘Why should I sacrifice myself? I am a scientist, I am supposed to be working on scientific things, so I don’t need to put myself at risk by talking about these possibilities.’ And I have said that perhaps I’m just stubborn... I don’t like anybody to tell me what to do or to think, except Mrs. Pauling."
Linus Pauling. Interview with Wayne Reynolds, American Academy of Achievement. November 11, 1990.

Back to Quotes Index.