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.
Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.
The proclamation of Jesus is not a veneer: the proclamation of Jesus goes straight to the bones, heart, goes deep within and change us. And the spirit of the world does not tolerate it, will not tolerate it, and therefore, there is persecution.
I recently discussed with an intelligent and well-disposed man the threat of another war, which in my opinion would seriously endanger the existence of mankind, and I remarked that only a supranational organization would offer protection from that danger. Thereupon my visitor, very calmly and coolly, said to me: "Why are you so deeply opposed to the disappearance of the human race?".
One feels as if it could never, never be less. And yet all griefs, when there is no bitterness in them, are soothed down by time.
Man's shortcomings and sins are all due to substance of the body and not to its form, while all his merits are exclusively due to his form.
People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.
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