Frederick Soddy Born : September 2, 1877 Died : September 22, 1956 Browse All Authors Top 39 quotes by Frederick Soddy The ruling passion of the age is to convert wealth into debt in order to Frederick Soddy passion age order The whole profit of the issuance of money has provided the capital of the great banking business as it exists today. Frederick Soddy profit banking today The energy available for each individual man is his income, and the philosophy which can teach him to be content with penury should be capable of teaching him also the uses of wealth. Frederick Soddy teaching philosophy science An honest money system is the only alternative. Frederick Soddy alternatives honest The dropping of the Atomic Bomb is a very deep problem... Instead of commemorating Hiroshima we should celebrate... man's triumph over the problem [of transmutation], and not its first misuse by politicians and military authorities. Frederick Soddy military men science Chemistry has been termed by the physicist as the messy part of physics, but that is no reason why the physicists should be permitted to make a mess of chemistry when they invade it. Frederick Soddy invasion reason-why science I believe that there have been civilisations in the past that were familiar with atomic energy, and that by misusing it they were totally destroyed. Frederick Soddy energy believe past Nature is in austere mood, even terrifying, withal majestically beautiful. Frederick Soddy mood scary beautiful There is something sublime about its aloofness from and its indifference to its external environment. Frederick Soddy indifference environment sublime The fact remains that, if the supply of energy failed, modern civilization would come to an end as abruptly as does the music of an organ deprived of wind. Frederick Soddy future failure science But what sin is to the moralist and crime to the jurist so to the scientific man is ignorance. Frederick Soddy sin ignorance men An inexplicable fact is infinitely preferable to an incomprehensible mystery. Frederick Soddy inexplicable mystery facts There has been no discovery like it in the history of man. It puts into man's hands the key to using the fundamental energy of the universe. Frederick Soddy discovery men science The history of man is dominated by, and reflects, the amount of available energy Frederick Soddy available energy men It is probable that all heavy matter possesses - latent and bound up with the structure of the atom - a similar quantity of energy to that possessed by radium. If it could be tapped and controlled what an agent it would be in changing the world's destiny! The man who put his hand on the lever by which a parsimonious nature regulates so jealously the output of this store of energy would possess a weapon by which he could destroy the earth if he chose. Frederick Soddy destiny men hands In so far as such developments utilise the natural energy running to waste, as in water power, they may be accounted as pure gain. But in so far as they consume the fuel resources of the globe they are very different. The one is like spending the interest on a legacy, and the other is like spending the legacy itself. ... [There is] a still hardly recognised coming energy problem. Frederick Soddy nature running science Heat energy of uniform temperature [is] the ultimate fate of all energy. The power of sunlight and coal, electric power, water power, winds and tides do the work of the world, and in the end all unite to hasten the merry molecular dance. Frederick Soddy fate hard-work science It is curious to reflect, for example, upon the remarkable legend of the Philosopher's Stone, one of the oldest and most universal beliefs, the origin of which, however far back we penetrate into the records of the past, we do not probably trace its real source. Frederick Soddy real example past The real value of science is in the getting, and those who have tasted the pleasure of discovery alone know what science is. A problem solved is dead. A world without problems to be solved would be devoid of science. Frederick Soddy real science knowledge With all our mastery over the powers of Nature we have adhered to the view that the struggle for existence is a permanent and necessary condition of life. Frederick Soddy mastery struggle views
