Lewis Strauss quotes from Oppenheimer (2023)

Lewis Strauss

Genius is no guarantee of wisdom.

Lewis Strauss

You don’t know scientists like I do, counselor. They resent anyone who questions their judgement, especially if you’re not one of them.

Lewis Strauss

Robert built that damn place. He was founder, mayor, sheriff all rolled into one.

Lewis Strauss

If it could put us ahead again, the President of the United States needs to know about it. And if there’s a possibility that the Russians know about it from a spy at Los Alamos, then we’ve gotta get going.

Lewis Strauss

Survival in Washington is about knowing how to get things done.

Lewis Strauss

Amateurs seek the sun. Get eaten. Power stays in the shadows.

Lewis Strauss

Oppenheimer wanted to own the atomic bomb. He wanted to be the man who moved the Earth. He talks about putting the nuclear genie back in the bottle. Well I'm here to tell you that I know J. Robert Oppenheimer, and if he could do it all over, he'd do it all the same. You know he's never once said that he regrets Hiroshima? He'd do it all over. Why? Because it made him the most important man who ever lived!

Lewis Strauss

He wanted the glorious insincere guilt of the self-important to wear like a ****in' crown, and I gave it to him.

Lewis Strauss

J. Robert Oppenheimer the martyr. I gave him exactly what he wanted. To be remembered for Trinity. Not Hiroshima, not Nagasaki. He should be thanking me.

Lewis Strauss

I did what was right for this country. They don’t want me in the Cabinet Room? Maybe they should just invite Oppenheimer instead.

Strauss

I told you. He turned the scientists against me, one by one, starting with Einstein. I told you about that. Einstein, Einstein by the pond.
Strauss' aide: You did, but you know, sir, since nobody.. really knows what they said to each other that day, is it possible they didn’t talk about you at all? Is it possible they spoke about something, uh.. more important?