You may decry some of these scruples and protest that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in my philosoph...y. I am concerned, rather, that there should not be more things dreamt of in my philosophy than there are in heaven or earth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols a...re much better.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cu...ts to the millennium.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The main objection to religious myths is that, once made, they are so difficult to destroy. Chemistry is not haunted by the phlogi...ston theory as Christianity is haunted by the theory of a God with a craving for bloody sacrifices. But it is also a fact that while serious attempts are constantly being made to verify scientific myths, religious myths, at least under Christianity and Islam, have become matters of faith which it is more or less impious to doubt, and which we must not attempt to verify by empirical means. Chemists believe that when a chemical reaction occurs, the weights of the reactants are unchanged. If this is not very nearly true, most of chemical theory is nonsense. But experiments are constantly being made to disprove it.... Chemists welcome such experiments and do not regard them as impious or even futile.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements o...f ultimate fact but as art-forms.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
While I do not suggest that humanity will ever be able to dispense with its martyrs, I cannot avoid the suspicion that with a litt...le more thought and a little less belief their number may be substantially reduced.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »