John B. S. Haldane Quotes

53 quotes in 939 categories

• The advance of scientific knowledge does not seem to make either our universe or our inner life in it any less mysterious.
• The conclusion forced upon me in the course of a life devoted to natural science is that the universe as it is assumed to be…
• It was a reaction from the old idea of "protoplasm", a name which was a mere repository of ignorance.
• In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols are much better.
• If materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the result of the chemical…
• Haldane was engaged in discussion with an eminent theologian. "What inference," asked the latter, "might one draw about the nature of God from a study…
• Science affects the average man and woman in two ways already. He or she benefits by its application driving a motor-car or omnibus instead of…
• I have tried to show why I believe that the biologist is the most romantic figure on earth at the present day. At first sight…
• Until politics are a branch of science, we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.
• The idea of protoplasm, which was really a name for our ignorance, [is] only a little less misleading than the expression "Vital force".
• I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I…
• [Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in…
• Quantitative work shows clearly that natural selection is a reality, and that, among other things, it selects Mendelian genes, which are known to be distributed…
• God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.
• If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness…
• I will jump into the river to save two brothers or eight cousins.
• It wasn't until I had performed by first autopsy that I realized that even the drabest human exteriors could contain the most beautiful viscera. After…
• An ounce of algebra is worth a ton of verbal argument.
• Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public.
• A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry.

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