John Desmond Bernal

The question of the origin of life is essentially speculative. We have to construct, by straightforward thinking on the basis of very…

— John Desmond Bernal

It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance…

— John Desmond Bernal

As the scene of life would be more the cold emptiness of space than the warm, dense atmosphere of planets, the advantage…

— John Desmond Bernal

In England, more than in any other country, science is felt rather than thought. ... A defect of the English is their…

— John Desmond Bernal

Anticipation of movement, through muscular innervation and memory, by its retention of nerve impulse images, extend the present to the limit of…

— John Desmond Bernal

Marxists have some way of analyzing the development of affairs which enables them to judge far in advance of scientific thinkers what…

— John Desmond Bernal

Hunger and sex still dominate the primitive mammalian side of human existence, but at the present time it looks as if humanity…

— John Desmond Bernal

In science men have learned consciously to subordinate themselves to a common purpose without losing the individuality of their achievements. Each one…

— John Desmond Bernal

In fact, we will have to give up taking things for granted, even the apparently simple things. We have to learn to…

— John Desmond Bernal

The only way of learning the method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience.

— John Desmond Bernal

So many of the chemical reactions occurring in living systems have been shown to be catalytic processes occurring isothermally on the surface…

— John Desmond Bernal

As a scientist Miss [Rosalind] Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the…

— John Desmond Bernal

The greater the man, the more he is soaked in the atmosphere of his time; only thus can he get a wide…

— John Desmond Bernal

One of the questions on which clarity of thinking is now most necessary is that of the relation between the methods of…

— John Desmond Bernal

All that glitters may not be gold, but at least it contains free electrons.

— John Desmond Bernal

The psychology of a complex mind must differ almost as much from that of a simple, mechanized mind as its psychology would…

— John Desmond Bernal

The full area of ignorance is not mapped. We are at present only exploring the fringes.

— John Desmond Bernal

The relevance of Marxism to science is that it removes it from its imagined position of complete detachment and shows it as…

— John Desmond Bernal

The very bulk of scientific publications is itself delusive. It is of very unequal value; a large proportion of it, possibly as…

— John Desmond Bernal

The beauty of life is, therefore, geometrical beauty of a type that Plato would have much appreciated.

— John Desmond Bernal