I'm in Pittsburgh. Why am I here?

Harold Urey

Athens built the Acropolis. Corinth was a commercial city, interested in purely materialistic things. Today we admire Athens, visit it, preserve the old temples, yet we hardly ever set foot in Corinth.

Harold Urey

Have opened an interesting field of research in several of the major branches of science.

Harold Urey

In general, exchange reactions for the lighter isotopes have equilibrium constants sufficiently different from unity, so that the ratios of concentrations of the isotopes in two compounds which are in equilibrium.

Harold Urey

Above all, I regret that scientific experiments-some of them mine-should have produced such a terrible weapon as the hydrogen bomb. Regret, with all my soul, but not guilt.

Harold Urey

We all believe as an article of faith that life evolved from dead matter on this planet. It is just that life's complexity is so great, it is hard for us to imagine that it did.

Harold Urey

Well, you know I’m not on tenure anymore.

Harold Urey

The discovery of deuterium and the marked differences in the physical and chemical properties of hydrogen and deuterium, together with an efficient method for the separation of these isotopes.

Harold Urey

I looked for it [heavy hydrogen, deuterium] because I thought it should exist. I didn't know it would have industrial applications or be the basic for the most powerful weapon ever known [the nuclear bomb].

Harold Urey

I thought maybe my discovery might have the practical value of, say, neon in neon signs.

Harold Urey

Nature can always be more complicated than we imagine.

Harold Urey

[Pure research] is worth every penny it costs.

Harold Urey