There can be no truce between science and religion. John B. S. Haldane More Quotes by John B. S. Haldane More Quotes From John B. S. Haldane There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god. John B. S. Haldane fire funny science Quantitative work shows clearly that natural selection is a reality, and that, among other things, it selects Mendelian genes, which are known to be distributed at random through wild populations, and to follow the laws of chance in their distribution to offspring. In other words, they are an agency producing variation of the kind which Darwin postulated as the raw material on which selection acts. John B. S. Haldane agency law reality A discussion between Haldane and a friend began to take a predictable turn. The friend said with a sigh, 'It's no use going on. I know what you will say next, and I know what you will do next.' The distinguished scientist promptly sat down on the floor, turned two back somersaults, and returned to his seat. 'There,' he said with a smile. 'That's to prove that you're not always right.' John B. S. Haldane use two science It was a reaction from the old idea of "protoplasm", a name which was a mere repository of ignorance. John B. S. Haldane ignorance names science I will jump into the river to save two brothers or eight cousins. John B. S. Haldane cousin eight brother A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry. John B. S. Haldane math time believe My final word, before I'm done, Is "Cancer can be rather fun"- Provided one confronts the tumour with a sufficient sense of humour. I know that cancer often kills, But so do cars and sleeping pills; And it can hurt till one sweats, So can bad teeth and unpaid debts. A spot of laughter, I am sure, Often accelerates one's cure; So let us patients do our bit To help the surgeons make us fit. John B. S. Haldane laughter hurt fun You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat would probably be killed, though it can fall safely from the eleventh story of a building, a man is broken, a horse splashes. John B. S. Haldane horse men fall [Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science. John B. S. Haldane successful children religion We do not know, in most cases, how far social failure and success are due to heredity, and how far to environment. But environment is the easier of the two to improve. John B. S. Haldane congratulations nature success The world shall perish not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder John B. S. Haldane contemporary-society wonder world Science affects the average man and woman in two ways already. He or she benefits by its application driving a motor-car or omnibus instead of a horse-drawn vehicle, being treated for disease by a doctor or surgeon rather than a witch, and being killed with an automatic pistol or shell in place of a dagger or a battle-axe. John B. S. Haldane horse men science I have tried to show why I believe that the biologist is the most romantic figure on earth at the present day. At first sight he seems to be just a poor little scrubby underpaid man, groping blindly amid the mazes of the ultra-microscopic, engaging in bitter and lifelong quarrels over the nephridia of flatworms, waking perhaps one morning to find that someone whose name he has never heard has demolished by a few crucial experiments the work which he had hoped would render him immortal. John B. S. Haldane morning science believe Until politics are a branch of science, we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium. John B. S. Haldane branches cutting political The idea of protoplasm, which was really a name for our ignorance, [is] only a little less misleading than the expression "Vital force". John B. S. Haldane ignorance expression names I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things. John B. S. Haldane all-occasions conclusion motivation It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere by-product of matter. For if my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms. John B. S. Haldane mind brain supposing-that I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul. John B. S. Haldane healthy soul worry My practise as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. And I should be a coward if I did not state my theoretical views in public. John B. S. Haldane angel views success Shelley and Keats were the last English poets who were at all up to date in their chemical knowledge. John B. S. Haldane poet lasts science
