John Charles Polanyi Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey.”

“Science never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to have achieved it.”

“The scientific and scholarly community is marked by the belief that the truth is to be found in all; none can claim it as their monopoly.”

“If we treasure our own experience and regard it as real, we must also treasure other people's experience.”

“In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy.”

“It is this, at its most basic, that makes science a humane pursuit; it acknowledges the commonality of people's experience.”

“Our assessment of socio-economic worth is largely a sham. We scientists should not lend ourselves to it - though we routinely do. We should, instead, insist on applying the criterion of quality.”

“Better to die in the pursuit of civilized values, we believed, than in a flight underground. We were offering a value system couched in the language of science.”

“Individual scientists like myself - and many more conspicuous - pointed to the dangers of radioactive fallout over Canada if we were to launch nuclear weapons to intercept incoming bombers.”

“The respect for human rights, essential if we are to use technology wisely, is not something alien that must be grafted onto science. On the contrary, it is integral to science, as also to scholarship in general.”