Some of mankind's most terrible misdeeds have been committed under the spell of certain magic words or phrases.
Interpretation
Certain powerful words or phrases can lead to significant negative actions by individuals or societies.
James Bryant Conant's quote highlights the dangerous potential of language and rhetoric, suggesting that some of humanity's worst actions have been influenced or spurred on by persuasive words. This insight underlines the importance of being mindful of the language we use and the significant impact it can have on our behavior and decisions, both individually and collectively.
In practice
During a speech about the consequences of war, I might use this quote to emphasize the power of persuasive language in leading to conflict.
I venture to define science as a series of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiment and observation and fruitful of further experiments and observations. The test of a scientific theory is, I suggest, its fruitfulness.
A conceptual scheme is never discarded merely because of a few stubborn facts with which it cannot be reconciled; a conceptual scheme is either modified or replaced by a better one, never abandoned with nothing left to take its place.
In every section of the entire area where the word science may properly be applied, the limiting factor is a human one. We shall have rapid or slow advance in this direction or in that depending on the number of really first-class men who are engaged in the work in question. ... So in the last analysis, the future of science in this country will be determined by our basic educational policy.
If two people agree, one of them is unnecessary.
Marijuana gives rise to insanity -- not in its users but in the policies directed against it. A nation that sentences the possessor of a single joint to life imprisonment without parole but sets a murderer free after perhaps six years is in the grips of a deep psychosis.
I have a heart to be stabbed in or shot in, I have no doubt, and, of course, if it ceased to beat, I would cease to be. But you know what I mean. I have no softness there, no—sympathy—sentiment—nonsense.
Man unquestionably has impressive powers... But after all our obedience and good works, we cannot be saved from the effects of our sins without the grace extended by the atonement of Jesus Christ... Man cannot earn his own salvation.
'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say.
We are slaves in the hands of nature - slaves to a bit of bread, slaves to praise, slaves to blame, slaves to wife, to husband, to child, slaves to everything.
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