John Desmond Bernal Quotes

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• It is characteristic of science that the full explanations are often seized in their essence by the percipient scientist long in advance of any possible proof.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Science, Essence, Long

  John Desmond Bernal (1967). “The origin of life”

  49 Copy quote

• But if capitalism had built up science as a productive force, the very character of the new mode of production was serving to make capitalism itself unnecessary.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Character, Unnecessary, Force

  John Desmond Bernal (1952). “Marx and science”

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• In fact, we will have to give up taking things for granted, even the apparently simple things. We have to learn to understand nature and not merely to observe it and endure what it imposes on us. Stupidity, from being an amiable individual defect, has become a social crime.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Giving Up, Science, Simple

  John Desmond Bernal (1967). “The origin of life”

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• The very bulk of scientific publications is itself delusive. It is of very unequal value; a large proportion of it, possibly as much as three-quarters, does not deserve to be published at all, and is only published for economic considerations which have nothing to do with the real interests of science.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Real, Science, Doe

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• The full area of ignorance is not mapped. We are at present only exploring the fringes.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Funny Inspirational, Learning, Ignorance

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• The relevance of Marxism to science is that it removes it from its imagined position of complete detachment and shows it as a part, but a critically important part, of economy and social development.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Important, Development, Detachment

  9 Copy quote

• All that glitters may not be gold, but at least it contains free electrons.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Gold, Glitter, May

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• Men will not be content to manufacture life: they will want to improve on it.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Life, Science, Men

  4 Copy quote

• Life is a partial, continuous, progressive, multiform and conditionally interactive self-realization of the potentialities of atomic electron states.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Self, Realization, Life Is

  John Desmond Bernal (1967). “The origin of life”

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• We academic scientists move within a certain sphere, we can go on being useless up to a point, in the confidence that sooner or later some use will be found for our studies. The mathematician, of course, prides himself on being totally useless, but usually turns out to be the most useful of the lot. He finds the solution but he is not interested in what the problem is: sooner or later, someone will find the problem to which his solution is the answer.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Moving, Science, Pride

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• So many of the chemical reactions occurring in living systems have been shown to be catalytic processes occurring isothermally on the surface of specific proteins, referred to as enzymes, that it seems fairly safe to assume that all are of this nature and that the proteins are the necessary basis for carrying out the processes that we call life.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Nature, Science, Enzymes

  29 Copy quote

• The only way of learning the method of science is the long and bitter way of personal experience.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Long, Way, Bitter

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• Scientific corporations might well become almost independent states and be enabled to undertake their largest experiments without consulting the outside world - a world which would be less and less able to judge what the experiments were about.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Independent, Judging, Would Be

  9 Copy quote

• The human mind evolved always in the company of the human body, and of the animal body before it was human. The intricate connections of mind and body must exceed our imagination, as from our point of view we are peculiarly prevented from observing them.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Animal, Views, Imagination

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• The beauty of life is, therefore, geometrical beauty of a type that Plato would have much appreciated.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Life, Plato, Science

  John Desmond Bernal (1967). “The origin of life”

  7 Copy quote

• In England, more than in any other country, science is felt rather than thought. ... A defect of the English is their almost complete lack of systematic thinking. Science to them consists of a number of successful raids into the unknown.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Country, Successful, Science

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• In science men have learned consciously to subordinate themselves to a common purpose without losing the individuality of their achievements. Each one knows that his work depends on that of his predecessors and colleagues, and that it can only reach its fruition through the work of his successors. In science men collaborate not because they are forced to by superior authority or because they blindly follow some chosen leader, but because they realize that only in this willing collaboration can each man find his goal.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Men, Common Purpose, Goal

  "The Social Function of Science". Book by John Desmond Bernal, 1939.

  6 Copy quote

• As the scene of life would be more the cold emptiness of space than the warm, dense atmosphere of planets, the advantage of containing no organic material at all, so as to be independent of both these conditions, would be increasingly felt.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Independent, Space, Atmosphere

  "The World, the Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul". Book by John Desmond Bernal, 1929.

  84 Copy quote

• The central industry of modern civilisation, tending, because of its control over materials, to spread into and ultimately incorporate older industries such as mining, smelting, oil- refining, textiles, rubber, building, and even agriculture in respect to fertilizers and food processing.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Oil, Agriculture, Textiles

  John Desmond Bernal (1965). “Science in history”

  7 Copy quote

• The present aristocracy of western culture, at the very moment when it most clearly dominates the world, is being imitated rapidly and successfully in every eastern country.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Country, Gdp, Western Culture

  "The World, the Flesh and the Devil: An Enquiry into the Future of the Three Enemies of the Rational Soul". Book by John Desmond Bernal, 1929.

  17 Copy quote

• The greater the man, the more he is soaked in the atmosphere of his time; only thus can he get a wide enough grasp of it to be able to change substantially the pattern of knowledge and action.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Science, Men, Atmosphere

  John Desmond Bernal (1965). “Science in history”

  7 Copy quote

• Hunger and sex still dominate the primitive mammalian side of human existence, but at the present time it looks as if humanity were within sight of their satisfaction. Permanent plenty, no longer a Utopian dream, awaits the arrival of permanent peace.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Dream, Sex, Sight

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• If science were communism, was it also not possible that communism could itself become a science?

  John Desmond Bernal

  Communism, Ifs

  Attributed to J. D. Bernal in: "The visible college" p. 137, book by Gary Werske, 1978.

  4 Copy quote

• We are still too close to the birth of the universe to be certain about its death.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Science, Birth, Certain

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• As a scientist Miss [Rosalind] Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken.

  John Desmond Bernal

  Beautiful, Taken, Perfection

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