John Polanyi quotes

John Polanyi is a Hungarian-Canadian chemist renowned for his groundbreaking research in chemical kinetics and reaction dynamics. His work greatly advanced the understanding of how chemical reactions occur at the molecular level. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the field. Here are 28 of his quotes:

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow. (John Polanyi)
Even in the world of molecules the civilising influence of modest restraints is a cause for rejoicing. View quote
John Polanyi
When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves. Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge. View quote
John Polanyi
For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom. View quote
John Polanyi
In nation after nation, democracy has taken the place of autocracy. View quote
John Polanyi
Individual scientists like myself - and many more conspicuous - pointed to the dangers of radioactive fallout over Canada if we were to launch nuclear weapons to intercept incoming bombers. View quote
John Polanyi
Success in reading some messages brings with it a temporary blindness to others. We forget that between the words written in black in nature's book there are likely to be messages of equal importance written in white. It is a truism that success in science comes to the individuals who ask the right questions. View quote
John Polanyi
It is not the laws of physics that make science possible but the unprovable proposition that there exists a grand design underlying the physical world. View quote
John Polanyi
Though neglectful of their responsibility to protect science, scientists are increasingly aware of their responsibility to society. View quote
John Polanyi
A new sense of shared international responsibility is unmistakable in the voices of the United Nations and its agencies, and in the civil society of thousands of supra-national NGOs. View quote
John Polanyi
The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, a middle, and an end. (John Polanyi)
The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight. View quote
John Polanyi
Scientia is knowledge. It is only in the popular mind that it is equated with facts. View quote
John Polanyi
Others think it the responsibility of scientists to coerce the rest of society, because they have the power that derives from special knowledge. View quote
John Polanyi
Today, Academies of Science use their influence around the world in support of human rights. View quote
John Polanyi
Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for oppression. View quote
John Polanyi
Scientists and scholars should constitute themselves as an international NGO of exceptional authority. View quote
John Polanyi
Science never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to have achieved it. View quote
John Polanyi
Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey. View quote
John Polanyi
Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge. View quote
John Polanyi
Young people ask me if this country is serious about science. They aren't thinking about the passport that they will hold, but the country that they must rely on for support and encouragement. (John Polanyi)
Science gives us a powerful vocabulary, and it is impossible to produce a vocabulary with which one can only say nice things. View quote
John Polanyi
The respect for human rights, essential if we are to use technology wisely, is not something alien that must be grafted onto science. On the contrary, it is integral to science, as also to scholarship in general. View quote
John Polanyi
Our assessment of socio-economic worth is largely a sham. We scientists should not lend ourselves to it - though we routinely do. We should, instead, insist on applying the criterion of quality. View quote
John Polanyi
If we treasure our own experience and regard it as real, we must also treasure other people's experience. View quote
John Polanyi