Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

Both of these branches of evolutionary science, are, in my opinion, in the closest causal connection; this arises from the reciprocal action of the laws of heredity and adaptation.

Effort | Science |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

Education can help us only if it produces “whole men”. The truly educated man is not a man who knows a bit of everything, not even the man who knows all the details of all subjects (if such a thing were possible): the “whole man” in fact, may have little detailed knowledge of facts and theories, he may treasure the Encyclopædia Britannica because “she knows and he needn’t”, but he will be truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his view on the meaning and purpose of his life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from this inner clarity.

Absolute | Science |

Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

Democritus introduces the intellect having an argument with the senses about what is 'real'.

Hypothesis | Indispensable | Individual | Little | Means | Nature | Nothing | Position | Question | Science | Will |

Ernst Toller

After that I could never pass a dead man without stopping to gaze on his face, stripped by death of that earthly patina which masks the living soul. And I would ask, who were you? Where was your home? Who is mourning for you now?

Day | Evolution | Important | Man | People | Phenomena | Science | Truths |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

The foundations of peace cannot be laid by universal prosperity, in the modern sense, because such prosperity, if attainable at all, is attainable only by cultivating such drives of human nature as greed and envy, which destroy intelligence, happiness, serenity, and thereby the peacefulness of man.

Little | Science | Technology | Truth | Wisdom |

Esaias Tegnér

A woman's honor rests on manly love.

Justice | Sense |

Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

Why are atoms so small?... Many examples have been devised to bring this fact home to an audience, none of them more impressive than the one used by Lord Kelvin: Suppose that you could mark the molecules in a glass of water, then pour the contents of the glass into the ocean and stir the latter thoroughly so as to distribute the marked molecules uniformly throughout the seven seas; if you then took a glass of water anywhere out of the ocean, you would find in it about a hundred of your marked molecules.

God | Music | Question | Science | Time | Unity | God | Old |

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

The value of the life of these lower savages is like that of the anthropoid apes, or very little higher. All recent travelers who have carefully observed them in their native lands, and studied their bodily structure and psychic life, agree in this opinion.

Appreciation | Body | Science | Appreciation | Learn |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

To talk about the future is useful only if it leads to action now.

Fault | Method | Money | Price | Self-deception | Thought | Fault | Thought |

Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe.

Need | Present | Science | Thinking |

Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

To which the senses retort; 'Poor intellect, do you hope to defeat us while from us you borrow your evidence? Your victory is your defeat.'

Life | Life | Sense |

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

In many of these languages there are numerals only for one, two, and three: no Australian language counts beyond four. Very many wild tribes can count no further than ten or twenty, whereas some very clever dogs have been made to count up to forty and even beyond sixty.

Existence | Faith | Force | History | Knowledge | Necessity | Nothing | Position | Science | Work |

Erwin Schrödinger, fully Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger

In this communication I wish first to show in the simplest case of the hydrogen atom (nonrelativistic and undistorted) that the usual rates for quantization can be replaced by another requirement, in which mention of ‘whole numbers’ no longer occurs. Instead the integers occur in the same natural way as the integers specifying the number of nodes in a vibrating string. The new conception can be generalized, and I believe it touches the deepest meaning of the quantum rules.

Atheism | Experience | God | Good | Nothing | Pain | Price | Reason | Science | Sense | Space | World | God |

Che Guevara, fully Ernesto “Che” Guevara

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.

Evidence |

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

Everybody knows that the butterfly emerges from the pupa, and the pupa from a quite different thing called a larva, and the larva from the butterfly's egg.

Man | Psychology | Sense | Soul |

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

This demand, that the doctrine of descent should be grounded on experiment, is so perverse and shows such ignorance of the very essence of our theory, that though we have never been surprised at hearing it continually repeated by ignorant laymen, from the lips of a Virchow it has positively astounded us. What can in this case be proved by experiment, and what can experiment prove?

Evolution | History | Inquiry | Light | Science | Study |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

Excellent! This is real life, full of antinomies and bigger than logic. Without order, planning, predictability, central control, accountancy, instructions to the underlings, obedience, discipline—without these, nothing fruitful can happen, because everything disintegrates. And yet—without the magnanimity of disorder, the happy abandon, the entrepreneurship venturing into the unknown and incalculable, without the risk and the gamble, the creative imagination rushing in where bureaucratic angels fear to tread—without this, life is a mockery and a disgrace.

Ends | Guidance | Need | People | Science | Wisdom | Work | Guidance | Value |

E. F. Schumacher, fully Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher

To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence.

Future | Man | Means | Science | Technology | Words |

Ernst Haeckel, full name Ernst Heinrich Phillip August Haeckel

They throw light first of all on the "natural history of creation," then on psychology, or "the science of the soul," and through this on the whole of philosophy. And as the general results of every branch of inquiry are summed up in philosophy, all the sciences come in turn to be touched and influenced more or less by the study of the evolution of man.

Science |