Jbs Haldane Quotes

The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.

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)

The world shall perish not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder

There is no great invention, from fire to flying, which has not been hailed as an insult to some god.

I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

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.

Man’s habits change more rapidly than his instincts.

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.

Man armed with science is like a baby with a box of matches.

Science affects the average man and woman in two ways already. He or she benefits by its application driving a motor-car or omnibus instead of a horse-drawn vehicle, and being treated for disease by a doctor or surgeon rather than a witch.

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

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.

We can fortell little of the future save that the thing that has not been is the thing that shall be.

To light a lamp as a source of light is about as wasteful of energy as to burn down ones house to roast one's pork.

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.

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.

I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.

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.

Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he’s unwilling to be seen with her in public.

The biologist J.B.S. Haldane once said that there are two reasons why humans do not turn into angels: moral imperfection and a body plan that cannot accommodate both arms and wings.

My suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. ... I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy for myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.

We do not find obvious evidence of life or mind in so-called inert matter…; but if the scientific point of view is correct, we shall ultimately find them, at least in rudimentary form, all through the universe 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.

As the famous British geneticist and evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane quipped, “My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

My own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we "can" suppose. (From: Possible Worlds and Other Papers)

As the geneticist J.B.S. Haldane had described it in 1923, once the power to control genes had been harnessed, "no beliefs, no values, no institutions are safe.

El universo no sólo es más raro de lo que suponemos. Es más raro de lo que podemos suponer

If He exists the creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles.

Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.

The Creator would appear as endowed with a passion for stars, on the one hand, and for beetles on the other, for the simple reason that there are nearly 300,000 species of beetle known, and perhaps more, as compared with somewhat less than 9,000 species of birds and a little over 10,000 species of mammals. Beetles are actually more numerous than the species of any other insect order. That kind of thing is characteristic of nature.

According to geneticist and evolutionary biologist, J.B.S. Haldane, theories have 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. I can’t help thinking that Jimmie would have added: 5. It was my idea to begin with.