A peacetime draft is the most un-American thing I know. George Wald More Quotes by George Wald More Quotes From George Wald The concept of war crimes is an American invention. George Wald invention crime war So-called defense now absorbs sixty per cent of the national budget, and about twelve per cent of the Gross National Product. George Wald gross twelve defense It's not good enough to give it tender, loving care, to supply it with breakfast foods, to buy it expensive educations. Those things don't mean anything unless this generation has a future. And we're not sure that it does. George Wald breakfast-food giving mean The Nobel Prize is an honor unique in the world in having found its way into the hearts and minds of simple people everywhere. It casts a light of peace and reason upon us all; and for that I am especially grateful. George Wald grateful heart peace When you have no experience of pain, it is rather hard to experience joy. George Wald hard pain joy Science goes from question to question; big questions, and little, tentative answers. The questions as they age grow ever broader, the answers are seen to be more limited. George Wald growth age science A scientist is in a sense a learned small boy. There is something of the scientist in every small boy. Others must outgrow it. Scientists can stay that way all their lives. George Wald boys life science About two million years ago, man appeared. He has become the dominant species on the earth. All other living things, animal and plant, live by his sufferance. He is the custodian of life on earth, and in the solar system. It's a big responsibility. George Wald responsibility life science One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are-as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation. George Wald generations tasks believe I have lived much of my life among molecules. They are good company. I tell my students to try to know molecules, so well that when they have some question involving molecules, they can ask themselves, What would I do if I were that molecule? I tell them, Try to feel like a molecule; and if you work hard, who knows? Some day you may get to feel like a big molecule! George Wald hard-work science knowledge If the germ plasm wants to swim in the ocean, it makes itself a fish; if the germ plasm wants to fly in the air, it makes itself a bird. If it wants to go to Harvard, it makes itself a man. The strangest thing of all is that the germ plasm that we carry around within us has done all those things. There was a time, hundreds of millions of years ago, when it was making fish. Then ... amphibia ... reptiles ... mammals, and now it's making men. George Wald ocean men science We have fallen in love with the body. That's that thing that looks back at us from the mirror. That's the repository of that lovely identity that you keep chasing all your life. George Wald love-life lovely mirrors I can conceive of no nightmare so terrifying as establishing communication with a so-called superior (or, if you wish, advanced) technology in outer space. George Wald communication technology space The Vietnamese have a secret weapon. It's their willingness to die beyond our willingness to kill. In effect, they've been saying, You can kill us, but you'll have to kill a lot of us; you may have to kill all of us. And, thank heaven, we are not yet ready to do that. George Wald secret thank-you heaven As you lecture, you keep watching the faces, and information keeps coming back to you all the time. George Wald lectures information faces A scientist should be the happiest of men. George Wald scientist should men Our business is with life, not death. George Wald business We living things are a late outgrowth of the metabolism of our galaxy. The carbon that enters into our composition was cooked in a remote past in a dying star. The waters of ancient seas set the pattern of ions in our blood. The ancient atmospheres moulded our metabolism. George Wald ions stars past The great questions are those an intelligent child asks and, getting no answers, stops asking. George Wald intelligent asking children I think I know what is bothering the students. I think that what we are up against is a generation that is by no means sure that it has a future. George Wald future science mean
