For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom.

- John Charles Polanyi

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

- John Charles Polanyi

In education the appetite does indeed grow with eating. I have never known anyone to abandon study because they knew too much.

- John Charles Polanyi

A wise man in China asked his gardener to plant a shrub. The gardener objected that it only flowered once in a hundred years. "In that case," said th…

- John Charles Polanyi

Science exists, moreover, only as a journey toward troth. Stifle dissent and you end that journey.

- John Charles Polanyi

Science never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to have achieved it.

- John Charles Polanyi

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

- John Charles Polanyi

The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight.

- John Charles Polanyi

Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for op…

- John Charles Polanyi