C. P. Snow quotes

C. P. Snow was an English novelist and physical chemist known for his reflections on the relationship between science and the humanities. His lecture "The Two Cultures" famously highlighted the growing divide between scientific and literary intellectuals. He also served in various governmental and administrative roles throughout his career. Here are 9 of his quotes:

Try as I might, I could never feel any great affection for a man who so much resembled a Baked Alaska - sweet, warm and gungy on the outside, hard and cold within.

C. P. Snow

I was searching for something a little more than a dashing metaphor, a good deal less than a cultural map: and for those purposes the two cultures is about right.

C. P. Snow

Two polar groups: at one pole we have the literary intellectuals, at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension.

C. P. Snow

A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is about the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?

C. P. Snow

There are no secrets in science.

C. P. Snow

There is no excuse for letting another generation be as vastly ignorant, or as devoid of understanding and sympathy, as we are ourselves.

C. P. Snow

The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you'll never find it.

C. P. Snow

There is, of course, no complete solution. [...] But we can do something. The chief means open to us is education [...] There is no excuse for letting another generation be as vastly ignorant, or as devoid of understanding and sympathy, as we are ourselves.

C. P. Snow