Author: John Polanyi

Quotes

Some dreamers demand that scientists only discover things that can be used for good.

Some dreamers demand that scientists only discover things that can be used for good.

- John Polanyi

Others think it the responsibility of scientists to coerce the rest of society, because they have the power that derives from special knowledge.

Others think it the responsibility of scientists to coerce the rest of society, because they have the power that derives from special knowledge.

- John Polanyi

Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for oppression.

Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for oppression.

- John Polanyi

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

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

- John Polanyi

Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts.

Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts.

- John Polanyi

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

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

- John Polanyi

For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom.

For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom.

- John Polanyi

Science gives us a powerful vocabulary, and it is impossible to produce a vocabulary with which one can only say nice things.

Science gives us a powerful vocabulary, and it is impossible to produce a vocabulary with which one can only say nice things.

- John Polanyi

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.

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.

- John Polanyi

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