Quotes by John Charles Polanyi

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

John Charles Polanyi

For scholarship - if it is to be scholarship - requires, in addition to liberty, that the truth take precedence over all sectarian interests, including self-interest.

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi

For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom.

John Charles Polanyi

Under this scientific and moral pressure, the Canadian government conceded publicly that the use of these weapons in Vietnam was, in their view, a contravention of the Geneva Protocol.

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.

John Charles Polanyi

Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi

The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight.

John Charles Polanyi

Though we explore in a culturally-conditioned way, the reality we sketch is universal.

John Charles Polanyi

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.

John Charles Polanyi

In the late 1950s a major topic under discussion was whether Canada should acquire nuclear weapons.

John Charles Polanyi

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.

John Charles Polanyi

What makes the Universal Declaration an epochal document is first of all its global impetus and secondly the breadth of its claims, a commitment to a new social contract, binding on all the Governments of the world.

John Charles Polanyi

The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, a middle, and an end.

John Charles Polanyi

Scientists and scholars should constitute themselves as an international NGO of exceptional authority.

John Charles Polanyi

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

John Charles Polanyi