Quotes from John B. S. Haldane

Money can buy a fine dog but it is kindness that makes him wag his tail.

Capitalism, though it may not always give the scientific worker a living wage, will always protect him, as being one of the geese which produce golden eggs for its table.

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.

Christianity is haunted by the theory of a God with a craving for bloody sacrifices.

Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than the classics.

Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination.

While I do not suggest that humanity will ever be able to dispense with its martyrs, I cannot avoid the suspicion that with a little more thought and a little less belief their number may be substantially reduced.

The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.

There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.

There can be no truce between science and religion.

Science is as yet in its infancy, and we can foretell little of the future save that the thing that has not been is the thing that shall be; that no beliefs, no values, no institutions are safe.

So far from being an isolated phenomenon the late war is only an example of the disruptive result that we may constantly expect from the progress of science.

Shelley and Keats were the last English poets who were at all up to date in their chemical knowledge.

This is my prediction for the future: Whatever hasn't happened will happen, and no one will be safe from it.

A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult.

Would I lay down my life to save my brother? No, but I would to save two brothers or eight cousins.

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.

The advance of scientific knowledge does not seem to make either our universe or our inner life in it any less mysterious.

The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.

If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.

I think, however, that so long as our present economic and national systems continue, scientific research has little to fear.

There can be no truce between science and religion.

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.

A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult.