John Charles Polanyi Science Quotations

A wise man in China asked his gardener to plant a shrub. The gardener objected that it only flowered once in a hundred years. "In that case," said the wise man, "plant it immediately." [On the importance of fundamental research.]

Science is an enterprise that can only flourish if it puts the truth ahead of nationality, ethnicity, class and color.

Some dreamers demand that scientists only discover things that can be used for good.

Discoveries that are anticipated are seldom the most valuable. ... It's the scientist free to pilot his vessel across hidden shoals into open seas who gives the best value.

Science is a collection of stories, linking characters worthy of notice.

It is this, at its most basic, that makes science a humane pursuit; it acknowledges the commonality of people's experience.