I call that brilliant sequence of cultural peaks The Ascent of Man. Jacob Bronowski More Quotes by Jacob Bronowski More Quotes From Jacob Bronowski Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we can know although we are fallible. Jacob Bronowski ascent judgment errors Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty. Jacob Bronowski creativity adventure knowledge The air in a man's lungs 10,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 atoms, so that sooner or later every one of us breathes an atom that has been breathed before by anyone you can think of who has ever lived - Michelangelo or George Washington or Moses. Jacob Bronowski air men thinking It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. Jacob Bronowski education teacher inspirational The Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930's, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it - the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty. Jacob Bronowski faith men thinking Dissent is the mark of freedom. Jacob Bronowski dissent mark liberty No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power. ... The time has come to consider how we might bring about a separation, as complete as possible, between Science and Government in all countries. I call this the disestablishment of science, in the same sense in which the churches have been disestablished and have become independent of the state. Jacob Bronowski independent science country We have to understand that the world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is more important than the eye ... The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Jacob Bronowski cutting eye hands The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself. The discovery must be compared in importance with the invention of cave-painting and of writing. Like these earlier human creations, science is an attempt to control our surroundings by entering into them and understanding them from inside. And like them, science has surely made a critical step in human development which cannot be reversed. We cannot conceive a future society without science. Jacob Bronowski writing discovery science This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. Jacob Bronowski ignorance believe reality Man is unique not because he does science, and his is unique not because he does art, but because science and art equally are expressions of his marvelous plasticity of mind. Jacob Bronowski unique men art Many theories of the ancient world seem terribly childish today, a hodge-podge of fables and false comparisons.But our theories will seem childish five-hundred years from now.Every theory is based on some analogy, and sooner or later the theory fails because the analogy turns out to be false. A theory in its day helps to solve the problems of the day. Jacob Bronowski analogies world years Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think. Jacob Bronowski rejection acceptance thinking Certainty ends inquiry. Jacob Bronowski inquiry learning ends Science, like art, is not a copy of nature but a re-creation of her. Jacob Bronowski art-is creation art Beyond all our actions stands the larger shadow: How are we to choose between what we have been taught to think right and something else which manifestly succeeds? Jacob Bronowski our-actions shadow thinking The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Jacob Bronowski cutting inspirational hands Man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts which make him unique among the animals, so that unlike them, he is not a figure in the landscape, he is the shaper of the landscape. Jacob Bronowski unique animal men Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime. Jacob Bronowski conformity liberty lifetime The most remarkable discovery ever made by scientists is science itself. The discovery must be compared in importance with the invention of cave-painting and of writing. Jacob Bronowski scientist discovery science
