Jonas Salk quotes - page 2

My attitude was always to keep open, to keep scanning. I think that's how things work in nature. Many people are close-minded, rigid, and that's not my inclination. (Jonas Salk)
Neither wisdom nor good will is now dominant. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. View quote
Jonas Salk
The first thing I would like to point out is that each of us have a different purpose that we have to serve in the evolutionary scheme of things. We are not all equally endowed to do everything. When I speak about teleological evolution, I speak about the idea of "telos," purpose. View quote
Jonas Salk
Why did Mozart compose music? View quote
Jonas Salk
I see weeds and flowers. I think of it in those terms, and we have to discriminate and distinguish between the two, to recognize and encourage those human qualities and attributes that are the more positive. View quote
Jonas Salk
Know what is the purpose of life that you are inclined to serve, that you are drawn to. Do what makes your heart leap rather than simply follow some style or fashion. Not everyone can or should be a scientists. Not everyone can or should be any one thing. People need to know what kind of purpose they can serve. View quote
Jonas Salk
There are three stages of truth. First is that it can't be true, and that's what they said. You couldn't immunize against polio with a killed-virus vaccine. Second phase: they say, "Well, if it's true, it's not very important. And the third stage is, 'Well, we've known it all along." View quote
Jonas Salk
Since whatever we do has to be part of a team, part of a community, we have to attempt to bring together those who have the same conviction, see the same things. Then it becomes a matter of time, when one or the other will prevail. Fortunately, there is all this diversity, and if not for that, problems would not be solved. View quote
Jonas Salk
Why do I see things differently from the way other people see them? Why do I pursue the questions that I pursue, even if others regard them as, as they say, "controversial?" Which merely means that they have a difference of opinion. They see things differently. I am interested both in nature, and in the human side of nature, and how the two can be brought together, and effectively used. View quote
Jonas Salk
The evolvers are people who cause things to change. The maintainers of the status quo do everything to keep things from changing. And, there I see differences of perception. Differences in vision. Differences in interpretation, and differences in temperament, in personality. The number of evolvers are much fewer than the maintainers of the status quo. And amongst the evolvers, there are some who are initiators, some who go along with what other people recognize to be new or different. View quote
Jonas Salk
When things get bad enough, then something happens to correct the course. (Jonas Salk)
What you see in living systems, and in genetic systems, is that the genes are already there, having arisen in the course of time, and when they are needed they become activated. If they had to be invented, the time would be too late. View quote
Jonas Salk
Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine? Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun? View quote
Jonas Salk
I already see enough evidence for this optimism ... in recent years I find that perhaps what Im seeking is a scientific basis for hope, and I think I've found it. View quote
Jonas Salk
I was told I could, if I wished, switch and get a Ph. D. in biochemistry but my preference was to stay with medicine. And I believe that this is all linked to my original ambition, or desire, which was to be of some help to humankind, so to speak, in a larger sense than just on a one-to-one basis. Just as I intended to study law, to make just laws, so I found myself interested now in the laws of nature, as distinct from the laws the people make. View quote
Jonas Salk
You have to develop a thick skin in life. Its not in this field only. You might think of the ideal of the scientists, the ivory tower, the idealist. That's true of some. And I wouldn't guess as to what proportion. But there are some who are of that character, and there are some who are not. View quote
Jonas Salk
A wisdom deficit - fewer elders and even fewer people who listen to them. View quote
Jonas Salk
My life is pretty well at peace, and the profession is more of an avocation. It's a calling, if you like, rather than a job. I do what I feel impelled to do, as an artist would. View quote
Jonas Salk
That's how we continue on, and will improve our lot in life, solve the problems that arise. Partly out of necessity, partly out of this drive to improve. View quote
Jonas Salk
The idea of being constructive, creative, positive, in trying to bring out the best in one's own self and the best in others follows from what I've just been saying. View quote
Jonas Salk
There is no such thing as failure, there's just giving up too soon. (Jonas Salk)
Good parents give their children Roots and Wings. Roots to know where home is, wings to fly away and exercise what's been taught them. View quote
Jonas Salk
Find the right questions. You don't invent the answers, you reveal the answers. View quote
Jonas Salk
What is ... important is that we - number one: Learn to live with each other. Number two: try to bring out the best in each other. The best from the best, and the best from those who, perhaps, might not have the same endowment. And so this bespeaks an entirely different philosophy - a different way of life - a different kind of relationship - where the object is not to put down the other, but to raise up the other. View quote
Jonas Salk
The mind, in addition to medicine, has powers to turn the immune system around. View quote
Jonas Salk