Book detail: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This book is a compilation of the thoughts and experiences of a celebrated scientist and philosopher, presented in his own words. It provides a glimpse into his scientific endeavors, philosophical musings, and personal journey.
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“What is significant in one's own existence one is hardly aware, and it certainly should not bother the other fellow. What does a fish know about the water in which he swims all his life?”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal god, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“To put it boldly, it is the attempt at a posterior reconstruction of existence by the process of conceptualization.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Your ancestors dragged these black people from their homes by force; and in the white man's quest for wealth and an easy life they have been ruthlessly suppressed and exploited, degraded into slavery. The modern prejudice against Negroes is the result of the desire to maintain this unworthy condition.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“A conflict arises when a religious community insists on the absolute truthfulness of all statements recorded in the Bible. This means an intervention on the part of religion into the sphere of science; this is where the struggle of the Church against doctrines of Galileo and Darwin belongs.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Even though the realms of religion and science in themselves are clearly marked off from each other, nevertheless there exist between the two strong reciprocal relationships and dependencies.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“For scientific endeavor is a natural whole the parts of which mutually support one another in a way which, to be sure, no one can anticipate.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“It is only to the individual that a soul is given. And the high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule, or to impose himself in any other way.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large scientific method in most cases fails. One need only think of the weather, in which case the prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“It is only men who are free, who create the inventions and intellectual works which to us moderns make life worth while.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“A large part of our attitude toward things is conditioned by opinions and emotions which we unconsciously absorb as children from our environment. In other words, it is tradition—besides inherited aptitudes and qualities—which makes us what we are. We but rarely reflect how relatively small as compared with the powerful influence of tradition is the influence of our conscious thought upon our conduct and convictions.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgements of all kinds remain necessary.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“During the youthful period of mankind's spiritual evolution human fantasy created gods in man's own image, who, by the operations of their will were supposed to determine, or at any rate to influence, the phenomenal world. Man sought to alter the disposition of these gods in his own favour by means of magic and prayer.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Desire for approval and recognition is a healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being or fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The sole function of education...[is] to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The bitter and the sweet come from the outside, the hard from within, from one's own efforts.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Conscious man, to be sure, has at all times been keenly aware that life is an adventure, that life must, forever, be wrested from death.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“We all try to escape pain and death, while we seek what is pleasant.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The opinion prevailed among advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“.. free and responsible development of the individual, so that he may place his powers freely and gladly in the service of all mankind. There is no room in this for the divinization of a nation, of a class, let alone of an individual. Are we not all children of one father, as it is said in religious language?”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“If one holds these high principles clearly before one's eyes, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears glaringly that civilized mankind finds itself at present in grave danger. In the totalitarian states it is the rulers themselves who strive actually to destroy that spirit of humanity. In less threatened parts it is nationalism and intolerance, as well as the oppression of the individuals by economic means, which threaten to choke these most precious traditions.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“But if the longing for the achievement of the goal is powerfully alive within us, then shall we not lack the strength to find the means for reaching the goal and for translating it into deeds.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Hunger, love, pain, fear are some of those inner forces which rule the individual's instinct for self preservation.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Science is the attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense-experience correspond to a logically uniform system of thought.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“What distinguishes the language of science from language as we ordinarily understand the word? ... What science strives for is an utmost acuteness and clarity of concepts as regards their mutual relation and their correspondence to sensory data.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“It is open to every man to choose the direction of his striving; and also every man may draw comfort from Lessing's fine saying, that the search for truth is more precious than its possession.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events the firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exist as an independent cause of natural events.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“... knowledge must continually be renewed by ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It resembles a statue of marble which stands in the desert and is continually threatened with burial by the shifting sand. The hands of service must ever be at work, in order that the marble continue to lastingly shine in the sun. To these serving hands mine shall also belong.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“We must recognize what in our accepted tradition is damaging to our fate and dignity-and shape our lives accordingly.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“At the same time, as social beings, we are moved in the relations with our fellow beings by such feelings as sympathy, pride, hate, need for power, pity, and so on.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“All such action would cease if those powerful elemental forces were to cease stirring within us.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“They come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“It is a very high goal which, with our weak powers, we can reach only very inadequately, but which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“During the last century, and part of the one before, it was widely held that there was an unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief. The opinion prevailed amoung advanced minds that it was time that belief should be replaced increasingly by knowledge; belief that did not itself rest on knowledge was superstition, and as such had to be opposed. According to this conception, the sole function of education was to open the way to thinking and knowing, and the school, as the outstanding organ for the people's education, must serve that end exclusively.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Religion, on the other hand, deals only with evaluations of human thought and action: it cannot justifiably speak of facts and relationships between facts.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“The satisfaction of physical needs is indeed the indispensable pre-condition of a satisfactory existence, but in itself it is not enough. In order to be content, men must also have the possibility of developing their intellectual and artistic powers to whatever extent accords with their personal characteristics and abilities.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“All means prove but blunt instruments, if they have not behind them a living spirit.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Convictions can best be supported with experience and clear thinking.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“But their intervention makes our acts to serve ever less merely the immediate claims of our instincts.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher, and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words