Century Quote by Lewis Thomas

“The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of twentieth-century science to the human intellect.”

Lewis Thomas

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Century Confrontation Contribution Depth Discovery in science Feels Humans Ignorance Ignorant Intellect Nature Pieces Science Scientific discovery Scientific truth Scope Significant Truth Twentieth century

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If an idea cannot move on its own, pushing it doesn't help; best to let it lie there.

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Left to ourselves, mechanistic and autonomic, we hanker for friends.

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It would seem to me... an offense against nature, for us to come on the same scene endowed as we are with the curiosity,…

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The drive to be useful is encoded in our genes. But when we gather in very large numbers, as in the modern nation-state, we…

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I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.

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“Nature abhors a long silence.”

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Explore all 173 Lewis Thomas quotes

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