Herman Kahn Quotes

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Herman Kahn

Profession : Scientist

Birth : February 15, 1922

The objective of nuclear-weapons policy should not be solely to decrease the number of weapons in the world, but to make the world safer - which is not necessarily the same thing.

Herman Kahn

My guess is that nuclear weapons will be used sometime in the next hundred years, but that their use is much more likely to be small and limited than widespread and unconstrained.

Herman Kahn

Nuclear weapons are intrinsically neither moral nor immoral, though they are more prone to immoral use than most weapons.

Herman Kahn

Anything that reduces war-related destruction should not be considered altogether immoral.

Herman Kahn

A healthy and fully functioning society must allocate its resources among a variety of competing interests, all of which are more or less valid but none of which should take precedence over national security.

Herman Kahn

Only those who are ideologically opposed to military programs think of the defense budget as the first and best place to get resources for social welfare needs.

Herman Kahn

New developments in weapon systems during the 1950s and early 1960s created a situation that was most dangerous, and even conducive to accidental war.

Herman Kahn

There was no race - but to the extent that there was an arms competition, it was almost entirely on the Soviet side, first to catch up and then to surpass the Americans.

Herman Kahn

For if enough people were really convinced that growth should be halted, and if they acted on that conviction, then billions of others might be deprived of any realistic hope of gaining the opportunities now enjoyed by the more fortunate.

Herman Kahn

A surprising number of government committees will make important decisions on fundamental matters with less attention than each individual would give to buying a suit.

Herman Kahn