Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.
Alexis CarrelRead
The atmosphere of libraries, lecture rooms and laboratories is dangerous to those who shut themselves up in them too long. It separates us from reality like a fog.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Spending too much time in intellectual environments can disconnect us from real-world experiences.
Alexis Carrel highlights the potential dangers of isolating oneself in academic or intellectual settings, suggesting that immersion in libraries, lecture rooms, and laboratories can create a detachment from the realities of life. This metaphorical 'fog' indicates that solely focusing on academic pursuits can limit one's engagement with the outside world and diminish practical understanding.
Themes
EducationRealityIsolationKnowledgeExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech to highlight the importance of balancing study with real-world experiences.
More from Alexis Carrel
All quotes βMan offers himself to God. He stands before Him like the canvas before the painter or the marble before the sculptor. At the same time he asks for His grace, expresses his needs and those of his brothers in suffering. Such a type of prayer demands complete renovation. The modest, the ignorant, and the poor are more capable of this self-denial than the rich and the intellectual.
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Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.
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A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.
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The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.
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Discipline brings us effort, sacrifice and suffering. Later it brings us something of an inestimable value: something of which those who live only for pleasure, profit or amusement will always be deprived. This peculiar indefinable joy which one must have felt oneself to understand is the sign with which life marks its moment of triumph.
Alexis CarrelRead
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