Haldane Quotes

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. ~ John B. S. Haldane

You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. A rat would probably be killed, though it can fall safely from the eleventh story of a building, a man is broken, a horse splashes. ~ John B. S. Haldane

It wasn't until I had performed by first autopsy that I realized that even the drabest human exteriors could contain the most beautiful viscera. After that, I would console myself for the plainness of my fellow bus-riders by dissecting them in my imagination. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming. ~ John B. S. Haldane

[Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science. ~ John B. S. Haldane

It was a reaction from the old idea of "protoplasm", a name which was a mere repository of ignorance. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than the classics. ~ John B. S. Haldane

I will give up my belief in evolution if someone finds a fossil rabbit in the Precambrian. ~ John B. S. Haldane

As the biologist J. B. S. Haldane once famously observed: "The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose." The ~ Bill Bryson

I am not worried if scientists go and explain everything. This is for a very simple reason: an impala sprinting across the Savannah can be reduced to biomechanics, and Bach can be reduced to counterpoint, yet that does not decrease one iota our ability to shiver as we experience impalas leaping or Bach thundering. We can only gain and grow with each discovery that there is structure underlying the most accessible levels of things that fill us with awe.

But there is an even stronger reason why I am not afraid that scientists will inadvertently go and explain everything--it will never happen. While in certain realms, it may prove to be the case that science can explain anything, it will never explain everything. As should be obvious after all these pages, as part of the scientific process, for every question answered, a dozen newer ones are generated. And they are usually far more puzzling, more challenging than than the prior problems. This was stated wonderfully in a quote by a geneticist named Haldane earlier in the century: "Life is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." We will never have our flames extinguished by knowledge. The purpose of science is not to cure us of our sense of mystery and wonder, but to constantly reinvent and reinvigorate it. ~ Robert M. Sapolsky

I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things. ~ John B. S. Haldane

The idea of protoplasm, which was really a name for our ignorance, [is] only a little less misleading than the expression "Vital force". ~ John B. S. Haldane

Evolution sceptic: Professor Haldane, even given the billions of years that you say were available for evolution, I simply cannot believe it is possible to go from a single cell to a complicated human body, with its trillions of cells organized into bones and muscles and nerves, a heart that pumps without ceasing for decades, miles and miles of blood vessels and kidney tubules, and a brain capable of thinking and talking and feeling. JBS: But madam, you did it yourself. And it only took you nine months. ~ Richard Dawkins

As J. B. S. Haldane said when asked what evidence might contradict evolution, 'Fossil rabbits in the Precambrian. ~ Richard Dawkins

Eighty-five percent of recorded species live in the terrestrial realm, and the majority of these, some 850,000, are arthropods (that is, insects, spiders, and crustaceans). Most of the arthropod species are insects, and almost half of these are beetles, a fact that is said to have inspired a famous epigram from the British biologist J.B.S. Haldane. On being asked, one day, by some clerical gentlemen what his study of the natural world had revealed to him about God. Haldane is said to have replied that it indicated that He had an inordinate fondness of beetles. ~ Richard E. Leakey

To the biologist the problem of socialism appears largely as a problem of size. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Perforated eardrums were quite common16, too; but, as Haldane reassuringly noted in one of his essays, 'the drum generally heals up; and if a hole remains in it, although one is somewhat deaf, one can blow tobacco smoke out of the ear in question, which is a social accomplishment. ~ Bill Bryson

There can be no truce between science and religion. ~ John B. S. Haldane

My practice as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. ~ J.B.S. Haldane

My lady," Sebastian murmured, resting one hand at
the small of her corseted back. Regarding Haldane with a slight smile, he continued to speak to Evie. "It seems I'll have to warn you, my love... this gentleman is a wolf in sheep's clothing."
Although Evie would have expected the elderly man to take offense at such a remark, Haldane chuckled with pleasure, his vanity flattered. "If I were twenty years younger, my impudent fellow, I would steal her away from you. Despite your much-vaunted charm, you are no match for what I was then."
"Age hasn't tamed you a whit," Sebastian replied with a grin, drawing Evie away from him. "Pardon us, my lord, while I remove my wife from safer territory."
"It is obvious that this elusive fellow has been caught firmly in your snare," Haldane told Evie. "Go, then, and pacify his jealous temperament."
"I... I will try," Evie said uncertainly. For some reason both men laughed, and Sebastian kept his hand on Evie's back as they left the main room. ~ Lisa Kleypas

I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages: (i) this is worthless nonsense; (ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii) this is true, but quite unimportant; (iv) I always said so. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Knox was engaged in a theological discussion with scientist John Scott Haldane. 'In a universe containing millions of planets,' reasoned Haldane, 'is it not inevitable that life should appear on at least one of them?' 'Sir,' replied Knox, 'if Scotland Yard found a body in your cabin trunk, would you tell them: 'There are millions of trunks in the world; surely one of them must contain a body? I think the would still want to know who put it there.' ~ Ronald Knox

If materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the result of the chemical processes going on in my brain, they are determined by the laws of chemistry, not those of logic. ~ John B. S. Haldane

The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine. ~ John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

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

It took man 250,000 years to transcend the hunting pack. It will not take him so long to transcend the nation. ~ J.B.S. Haldane

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

An attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy. ~ John B. S. Haldane

There are 400,000 species of beetles on this planet, but only 8,000 species of mammals. ~ John B. S. Haldane

It seems to me immensely unlikely that mind is a mere by-product of matter. For if my mental processes are determined wholly by the motions of atoms in my brain I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true. They may be sound chemically, but that does not make them sound logically. And hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms. ~ John B. S. Haldane

The conservative has but little to fear from the man whose reason is the servant of his passions, but let him beware of him in whom reason has become the greatest and most terrible of the passions. These are the wreckers of outworn empires and civilisations, doubters, disintegrators, deicides. ~ John B. S. Haldane

An ounce of algebra is worth a ton of verbal argument. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Einstein - the greatest Jew since Jesus. I have no doubt that Einstein's name will still be remembered and revered when Lloyd George, Foch and William Hohenzollern share with Charlie Chaplin that ineluctable oblivion which awaits the uncreative mind. ~ John B. S. Haldane

The Creator, if He exists, has a special preference for beetles. ~ John B. S. Haldane

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. ~ John B. S. Haldane

I do not believe in the commercial possibility of induced radioactivity. ~ John B. S. Haldane

It is my supposition that the Universe in not only queerer than we imagine, is queerer than we can imagine. ~ John B. S. Haldane

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

Every Christian church has tried to impose a code of morals of some kind for which it has claimed divine sanction. As these codes have always been opposed to those of the gospels a loophole has been left for moral progress such as hardly exists in other religions. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Man who is without the arts is little above the beasts of the field. ~ Haldane McFall

Shelley and Keats were the last English poets who were at all up to date in their chemical knowledge. ~ John B. S. Haldane

A time will however come (as I believe) when physiology will invade and destroy mathematical physics, as the latter has destroyed geometry. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Man's habits change more rapidly than his instincts. ~ J.B.S. Haldane

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. ~ John B. S. Haldane

So many new ideas are at first strange and horrible though ultimately valuable that a very heavy responsibility rests upon those who would prevent their dissemination. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Man armed with science is like a baby with a box of matches. ~ John B. S. Haldane

Quantitative work shows clearly that natural selection is a reality, and that, among other things, it selects Mendelian genes, which are known to be distributed at random through wild populations, and to follow the laws of chance in their distribution to offspring. In other words, they are an agency producing variation of the kind which Darwin postulated as the raw material on which selection acts. ~ John B. S. Haldane

In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols are much better. ~ John B. S. Haldane

My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. ~ John B. S. Haldane

The four stages of acceptance:
1. This is worthless nonsense.
2. This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view.
3. This is true, but quite unimportant.
4. I always said so."

(Review of The Truth About Death, in: Journal of Genetics 1963, Vol. 58, p.464) ~ J.B.S. Haldane

Religion is still parasitic in the interstices of our knowledge which have not yet been filled. Like bed-bugs in the cracks of walls and furniture, miracles lurk in the lacunae of science. The scientist plasters up these cracks in our knowledge; the more militant Rationalist swats the bugs in the open. Both have their proper sphere and they should realize that they are allies. ~ John B. S. Haldane

My practise as a scientist is atheistic. That is to say, when I set up an experiment I assume that no god, angel, or devil is going to interfere with its course; and this assumption has been justified by such success as I have achieved in my professional career. I should therefore be intellectually dishonest if I were not also atheistic in the affairs of the world. And I should be a coward if I did not state my theoretical views in public. ~ John B. S. Haldane

My final word, before I'm done, Is "Cancer can be rather fun"- Provided one confronts the tumour with a sufficient sense of humour. I know that cancer often kills, But so do cars and sleeping pills; And it can hurt till one sweats, So can bad teeth and unpaid debts. A spot of laughter, I am sure, Often accelerates one's cure; So let us patients do our bit To help the surgeons make us fit. ~ John B. S. Haldane

I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul. ~ John B. S. Haldane