- [before the Trinity test, to Oppenheimer]
- Gen. Leslie Groves: Robert - don't you ever worry the war will be over before the bomb is ready to drop?
- [University of Chicago December 2 1942 - the first controlled chain reaction in an atomic pile]
- Leo Szilard: This day will go down in history as a black mark against mankind.
- [after an experiment proving the feasibility of a chain reaction in uranium]
- Leo Szilard: The world is headed for trouble. The world is headed for grief.
- [reacting to the Trinity test]
- J. Robert Oppenheimer: You know the Bhagavad-Gita? "I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds."
- Kenneth Bainbridge: Yeah. Now we're all sons of bitches.