Top 28 Quotes by John Charles Polanyi

The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight.

Better to die in the pursuit of civilized values, we believed, than in a flight underground. We were offering a value system couched in the language of science.

Under this scientific and moral pressure, the Canadian government conceded publicly that the use of these weapons in Vietnam was, in their view, a contravention of the Geneva Protocol.

Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey.

Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.

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.

The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The scientific and scholarly community is marked by the belief that the truth is to be found in all; none can claim it as their monopoly.

In the late 1950s a major topic under discussion was whether Canada should acquire nuclear weapons.

For scholarship - if it is to be scholarship - requires, in addition to liberty, that the truth take precedence over all sectarian interests, including self-interest.