Alexis Carrel Quotes

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor

To progress again, man must remake himself. And he cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor. In order to uncover his true visage he must shatter his own substance with heavy blows of his hammer.

Prayer is the force as real as terrestrial gravity. As a physician, I have seen men, after all other therapy had failed, lifted out of disease and melancholy by the serene effort of prayer. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strength.

ان الأساليب التي تستخدمها الأعضاء في بناء نفسها غريبة على العقل البشري. أكوام من المادة تنبثق من خلية واحدة مفردة، كأن بيتاً بأكمله يبنى من طوبه سحرية، طوبة تقوم تلقائيا بتوليد وحدات أخرى من الطوب و تنمو الأعضاء بطريقة تذكرنا بما تفعله الجنّيات في قصص الأطفال. أن عقولنا تتوه تماما في العالم الداخلي للأعضاء

Happiness depends on one being exactly fitted to the nature of one's work.

All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need to take advice and to receive help from other people.

People have argued about God and government for centuries, and still they don't agree. But science, confronts opinion with facts.

Even if you are not a religious person by nature or training—even if you are an out-and-out skeptic—prayer can help you much more than you believe, for it is a practical thing. What do I mean, practical? I mean that prayer fulfills these three very basic psychological needs which all people share, whether they believe in God or not: 1. Prayer helps us to put into words exactly what is troubling us. We saw in Chapter 4 that it is almost impossible to deal with a problem while it remains vague and nebulous. Praying, in a way, is very much like writing our problems down on paper. If we ask help for a problem—even from God—we must put it into words. 2. Prayer gives us a sense of sharing our burdens, of not being alone. Few of us are so strong that we can bear our heaviest burdens, our most agonizing troubles, all by ourselves. Sometimes our worries are of so ultimate a nature that we cannot discuss them even with our closest relatives or friends. Then prayer is the answer. Any psychiatrist will tell us that when we are pent-up and tense, and in an agony of spirit, it is therapeutically good to tell someone our troubles. When we can’t tell anyone else—we can always tell God. 3. Prayer puts into force an active principle of doing. It’s a first step toward action. I doubt if anyone can pray for some fulfillment, day after day, without benefiting from it—in other words, without taking some steps to bring it to pass. The world-famous scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, said: “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate.” So why not make use of it? Call it God or Allah or Spirit—why quarrel with definitions as long as the mysterious powers of nature take us in hand?

Life leaps like a geyser for those who drill through the rock of inertia.

فنحن نتدهور نفسيّاً وعقليّاً في ظل تلكـ البيئة وليدة ذكائنا واختراعاتنا

El tiempo físico nos es extraño, mientras el tiempo interior es nosotros mismos.

Too much light inhibits the activity of the brain", Carrel said. "Surely you've noticed that the world's great civilizations have formed far above the equator, where there is much less direct sunlight than in tropical regions".

Modern civilization seems to be incapable of producing people endowed with imagination, intelligence, and courage. In practically every country there is a decrease in the intellectual and moral caliber of those who carry the responsibility of public affairs. The financial, industrial, and commercial organizations have reached a gigantic size. They are influenced not only by the conditions of the country where they are established, but also by the state of the neighboring countries and of the entire world. In all nations, economic and social conditions undergo extremely rapid changes. Nearly everywhere the existing form of government is again under discussion. The great democracies find themselves face to face with formidable problems--problems concerning their very existence and demanding an immediate solution. And we realize that, despite the immense hopes which humanity has placed in modern civilization, such a civilization has failed in developing men of sufficient intelligence and audacity to guide it along the dangerous road on which it is stumbling. Human beings have not grown so rapidly as the institutions sprung from their brains. It is chiefly the intellectual and moral deficiencies of the political leaders, and their ignorance, which endanger modern nations.

İnsan, tekrar yücelmesi için kendini yeni baştan inşa etmek zorundadır. Ve bu yenileşmeyi ızdırap çekmeden yapamaz. Çünkü o hem mermerdir, hem de heykeltraş. Hakiki biçimini yeniden kazanmak için, büyük çekiç darbelerini kendi maddesine indirerek kıvılcımlar çıkaracaktır.

.....ولهذا السبب استطاع (ادلجتون) و (جان) ان يدخلا في روع قراء كتبهما عن الفلك ان الانسان تافه جداً في هذا العالم، و حقيقة الامر أن كبر أبداننا أو ضآلتها مسأله لا أهمية لها على الاطلاق، لأن الاشياء المحدودة في الانسان لا ابعاد مادية لها، و معنى وجودنا في الحياة لا يعتمد قطعاً على جرمنا.

A tissue is evidently an enduring thing. It's functional and structural conditions become modified from moment to moment. Time is really the fourth dimension of living organisms. It enters as part into the constitution of a tissue. Cell colonies, or organs, are events which progressively unfold themselves. They must be studied like history.

ما هو مدى التقدم الحقيقي الذي نحققه حينما تنقلنا أحد الطائرات إلى أوروبا أو إلى الصين في ساعات قلائل ؟ هل من الضروري أن نزيد الإنتاج بلا توقف حتى يستطيع الإنسان أن يستهلك كميات أكثر فأكثر من أشياء لا جدوى منها ؟ ليس هناك أي ظل من الشك في أن علوم الميكانيكا والطبيعة والكيمياء عاجزة عن إعطائنا الذكاء والنظام الأخلاقي والصحة والتوازن العصبي والأمن والسلام.

Moral sense is almost completely ignored by modern society. We have, in fact, suppressed its manifestations. All are imbued with irresponsibility. Those who discern good and evil, who are industrious and provident, remain poor and are looked upon as morons. The woman who has several children, who devotes herself to their education, instead of to her own career, is considered weak-minded. If a man saves a little money for his wife and the education of his children, this money is stolen from him by enterprising financiers. Or taken by the government and distributed to those who have been reduced to want by their own improvidence and the shortsightedness of manufacturers, bankers, and economists. Artists and men of science supply the community with beauty, health, and wealth. They live and die in poverty. Robbers enjoy prosperity in peace. Gangsters are protected by politicians and respected by judges. They are the heroes whom children admire at the cinema and imitate in their games. A rich man has every right. He may discard his aging wife, abandon his old mother to penury, rob those who have entrusted their money to him, without losing the consideration of his friends. ...Ministers have rationalized religion. They have destroyed its mystical basis. But they do not succeed in attracting modern men. In their half-empty churches they vainly preach a weak morality. They are content with the part of policemen, helping in the interest of the wealthy to preserve the framework of present society. Or, like politicians, they flatter the appetites of the crowd.

Generally, it is greed, fear and curiosity which make us live outwardly. A French scientist who worked in America, Alexis Carrel, said in a book called "Man the Unknown" that if you ask yourself where your personality ends you will see that the tongue of a greed person is projected like tentacles towards all the edibles of the world; the eyes of the curious person are like tentacles projected and attached to everything around; the ears of the eavesdropper become long and wide and go far far afield. If you could draw a picture of what you look like in those terms you would see that precious little is left of you inside, because everything is extroverted. So that the first thing one must do is to detach the tentacles and bring them in. You cannot go inwards if you are completely outward.

La société moderne a commis la sérieuse faute de substituer, dès le plus bas âge, l’école à l’enseignement familial. Elle y a été obligée par la trahison des femmes. Celles-ci abandonnent leurs enfants au kindergarten pour s’occuper de leur carrière, de leurs ambitions mondaines, de leurs plaisirs sexuels, de leurs fantaisies littéraires ou artistiques, ou simplement pour jouer au bridge, aller au cinéma, perdre leur temps dans une paresse affairée. Elles ont causé ainsi l’extinction du groupe familial, où l’enfant grandissait en compagnie d’adultes et apprenait beaucoup d’eux. Les jeunes chiens élevés dans des chenils avec des animaux du même âge sont moins développés que ceux qui courent en liberté avec leurs parents. Il en est de même des enfants perdus dans la foule des autres enfants et de ceux qui vivent avec des adultes intelligents. L’enfant modèle facilement ses activités physiologiques, affectives et mentales sur celles de son milieu. Aussi reçoit-il peu des enfants de son âge. Quand il est réduit à n’être qu’une unité dans une école, il se développe mal. Pour progresser, l’individu demande la solitude relative, et l’attention du petit groupe familial. C’est également grâce à son ignorance de l’individu que la société moderne atrophie les adultes. L’homme ne supporte pas impunément le mode d’existence et le travail uniforme et stupide imposé aux ouvriers d’usine, aux employés de bureau, à ceux qui doivent assurer la production en masse. Dans l’immensité des villes modernes, il est isolé et perdu. Il est une abstraction économique, une tête du troupeau. Il perd sa qualité d’individu. Il n’a ni responsabilité, ni dignité. Au milieu de la foule émergent les riches, les politiciens puissants, les bandits de grande envergure. Les autres ne sont qu’une poussière anonyme. Au contraire, l’individu garde sa personnalité quand il fait partie d’un groupe où il est connu, d’un village, d’une petite ville, où son importance relative est plus grande, dont il peut espérer devenir, à son tour, un citoyen influent. La méconnaissance théorique de l’individualité a amené sa disparition réelle.

إلغاء البروليتاريا تدريجياً، حيث يعيش الإنسان في مجتمعات صغيرة بدلاً من المجموعات الهائلة من أجل الحفاظ على قيم لإنسانيّة داخل تلك المجموعة الصغيرة، وبدلاً من أن يكون مجرد آلة، سيصبح إنساناً

الآخرون هم فقط حبيبات الغبار بدون اسم. على العكس، يبقى الفرد رجلاً عندما ينتمي إلى مجموعة صغيرة، عندما يسكن مدينة أوقرية صغير’ حيث تكون أهميتهـ النسبية أكبر، عندما يأمل أن يصبح بدورهـ مواطناً مؤثراً، لقد أدى ازدراء الفردانية الى اختفائهـ الواقعي خطأ آخر يرجع إلى الخلط بين مفاهيم الإنسان والفرد، هو المساواة الديمقراطيّة. هذهـ العقيدة تنكسر الآن تحت ضربات تجربة الأممـ. لذلكـ من غير الضروري الإصرار على زيفها. لكن نجاحها كان مدهشا. كيف يمكن للإنسانيّة أن تقبل مثل هذا الإيمان لسنوات عديدة؟ العقيدة الديمقراطيّة لا تأخذ في الاعتبار بنية جسمنا ووعينا. لا ينطبق على الحقيقة الملموسة التي هو الفرد

في النهاية، نجد أن علوم المادة الخاملة قد حققت تقدماً هائلاً، بينما بقيت الكائنات الحيّة دون تطور..

Intuition comes very close to clairvoyance; it appears to be the extrasensory perception of reality.” —Alexis Carrel

It is not certain that the standardized habits of modern life lead to the optimum development of human beings. The present ways of living have been adopted because they are easy and pleasant. Indeed, they differ profoundly from those of our ancestors and of the human groups which have so far resisted industrial civilization. We do not know, as yet, whither they are better or worse.

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

[M]en cannot follow modern civilization along its present course, because they are degenerating. They have been fascinated by the beauty of the sciences of inert matter. They have not understood that their body and consciousness are subjected to natural laws, more obscure than, but as inexorable as, the laws of the sidereal world. Neither have they understood that they cannot transgress these laws without being punished. They must, therefore, learn the necessary relations of the cosmic universe, of their fellow men, and of their inner selves, and also those of their tissues and their mind. Indeed, man stands above all things. Should he degenerate, the beauty of civilization, and even the grandeur of the physical universe, would vanish. ... Humanity's attention must turn from the machines of the world of inanimate matter to the body and the soul of man, to the organic and mental processes which have created the machines and the universe of Newton and Einstein.

The next book that I would like to mention is called Man the Unknown by the Nobel laureate and doctor-turned-philosopher Alexis Carrel. In it, he talks about how humans can be healed when both the body and mind are treated together. His description of the human body—how it is an intelligent, integrated system—is explained clearly and brilliantly. I think this work should be read by everyone, in particular those who aim to study the medical sciences.

Les lois des relations humaines nous sont encore inconnues. La sociologie et l'économie politique ne sont que des sciences conjecturales, des pseudo-sciences.

That hour just before day comes to banish night, is a time of fear, anguish and hopelessness.

Prayer is Power Dr. Alexis Carrel, who devoted thirty-three years to biological research at the Rockefeller Institute, and is the author of Man, the Unknown, analysed prayer as follows: “Prayer is not only worship; it is also an invisible emanation of man’s worshipping spirit – the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrable as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, greater intellectual vigour, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationships.

The world-famous scientist, Dr Alexis Carrel, said: “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy one can generate.” So why not make use of it? Call it God or Allah or Spirit—why quarrel with definitions as long as the mysterious powers of nature take us in hand?

Uma tentativa infeliz vale mais do que a ausência de tentaiva

To progress again, man must remake himself. And he cannot remake himself withoutsuffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor. In order to uncover his true visage,he must shatter his own substance with heavy blows of his hammer.