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.
In man, the things which are not measurable are more important than those which are measurable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that the intangible aspects of life, such as feelings and values, hold greater significance than what can be quantified.
Alexis Carrel's quote emphasizes the importance of the non-material aspects of human existence, such as emotions, relationships, and moral values, which cannot be measured or quantified. He argues that these elements are crucial to understanding the human experience and contribute to a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life, asserting that the measurable attributes of life, such as wealth or physical achievements, are significantly less valuable.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a motivational speech about personal growth and values.
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.
Hard conditions of life are indispensable to bringing out the best in human personality.
A few observation and much reasoning lead to error; many observations and a little reasoning to truth.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
Bolivia's majority Indian population was always excluded, politically oppressed and culturally alienated. Our national wealth, our raw materials, was plundered. Indios were once treated like animals here. In the 1930s and 40s, they were sprayed with DDT to kill the vermin on their skin and in their hair whenever they came into the city.
I take it that what all men are really after is some form or perhaps only some formula of peace.
Nobody had noticed, nobody had paid attention, but, as usual, the essential part of the matter had been settled before the story had begun, and by then it was too late.
Christianity, whatever else it is, is an explosion. Unless it is sensational there is simply no sense in it. Unless the Gospel sounds like a gun going off it has not been uttered at all.
Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
To demand 'sense' is the hallmark of nonsense. Nature does not make sense. Nothing makes sense.