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It is a truism that success in science comes to the individuals who ask the right questions.

— John Polanyi

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More quotes by John Polanyi

It is not the laws of physics that make science possible but the unprovable proposition that there exists a grand design underlying the physical world.

Even in the world of molecules the civilising influence of modest restraints is a cause for rejoicing.

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves. Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Polanyi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.