Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the complexity of human errors and the strength of those who take responsibility for them.
J. Robert Oppenheimer's quote reflects the idea that recognizing and correcting one's mistakes is a significant undertaking that requires time, introspection, and courage. It suggests that a person who is willing to engage deeply with their errors and work diligently over years to rectify them demonstrates profound character and resilience, distinguishing them as exceptional individuals.
In practice
During a graduation speech focused on personal growth and accountability.
Bertrand Russell had given a talk on the then new quantum mechanics, of whose wonders he was most appreciative. He spoke hard and earnestly in the New Lecture Hall. And when he was done, Professor Whitehead, who presided, thanked him for his efforts, and not least for 'leaving the vast darkness of the subject unobscured'.
There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.
It is perfectly obvious that the whole world is going to hell. The only possible chance that it might not is that we do not attempt to prevent it from doing so.
Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. (quoting the Bhagavad-Gita after witnessing the first Nuclear explosion.)
[About the great synthesis of atomic physics in the 1920s:] It was a heroic time. It was not the doing of any one man; it involved the collaboration of scores of scientists from many different lands. But from the first to last the deeply creative, subtle and critical spirit of Niels Bohr guided, restrained, deepened and finally transmuted the enterprise.
'It worked.' (said after witnessing the first atomic detonation).
Why ask for truth," Ser Barristan said softly, "if you close your ears to it?
A voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings. Alone must it seek the ether. And alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun.
No one wants advice - only corroboration.
A thankful person is thankful under all circumstances. A complaining soul complains even in paradise.
It is clear, then, that wisdom is knowledge having to do with certain principles and causes. But now, since it is this knowledge that we are seeking, we must consider the following point: of what kind of principles and of what kind of causes is wisdom the knowledge?
There is a place where words are born of silence.
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