There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy.
Jacob BronowskiRead
Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that dissent is vital for a society's vitality, whereas conformity can lead to its decline.
Jacob Bronowski's quote emphasizes the importance of dissent in a healthy society. He argues that societies have historically failed not due to questioning or disagreement, but rather due to blind conformity, which stifles creativity and progress. This perspective invites reflection on the role of individual thinking and diverse opinions in fostering a vibrant and evolving community.
Themes
SocietyDissentConformityCreativityProgress
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity in the workplace, one might say, 'Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Let's embrace diverse ideas.'
More from Jacob Bronowski
All quotes βTo me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.
Jacob BronowskiRead
A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The basis for poetry and scientific discovery is the ability to comprehend the unlike in the like and the like in the unlike.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The world today is made, it is powered by science; and for any man to abdicate an interest in science is to walk with open eyes towards slavery.
Jacob BronowskiRead
Similar quotes
It is the history of our kindnesses that alone make this world tolerable. If it were not for that, for the effect of kind words, kind looks, kind letters . . . I should be inclined to think our life a practical jest in the worst possible spirit.
Robert Louis StevensonRead
If on the other hand he went to pay his respects to The Door and it wasn't there . . . what then? The answer, of course, was very simple. He had a whole board of circuits for dealing with exactly this problem, in fact this was the very heart of his function. He would continue to believe in it whatever the facts turned out to be, what else was the meaning of Belief? The Door would still be there, even if the Door was not.
Douglas AdamsRead
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone.
Arthur SchopenhauerRead
A faith that is afraid of other people is no faith at all.
Thomas MertonRead
I regard it (the Constitution) as the work of the purest patriots and wisest statesman that ever existed, aided by the smiles of a benign Providence; it almost appears a "Divine interposition in our behalf... the hand that destroys our Constitution rends our Union asunder forever.
Daniel WebsterRead
The news and the truth are not the same thing.
Walter LippmannRead