Men are naturally most impressed by diseases which have obvious manifestations, yet some of their worst enemies creep on them unobtrusively.
Interpretation
People tend to fear and notice obvious problems, while the more subtle issues can be much more harmful.
Rene Dubos highlights a critical aspect of human nature: we often react strongly to visible threats, such as diseases with clear symptoms, while ignoring or underestimating stealthy dangers that may be more damaging in the long run. This quote encourages awareness of less obvious challenges that can undermine our well-being.
In practice
In a speech about public health, one might say, 'As Rene Dubos pointed out, we should not just focus on diseases that are visible but also recognize those that creep up quietly.'
The wooing of the Earth thus implies much more than converting the wilderness into humanized environments. It means also preserving natural environments in which to experience mysteries transcending daily life and from which to recapture, in a Proustian kind of remembrance, the awareness of the cosmic forces that have shaped humankind.
Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; it makes it a requirement for survival.
There is a demon in technology. It was put there by man and man will have to exorcise it before technological civilization can achieve the eighteenth-century ideal of humane civilized life.
Nature always strikes back. It takes all the running we can do to remain in the same place.
The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
The question is not so much whether there is life on Mars as whether it will continue to be possible to live on Earth
What I'm saying is that I'm trying to find rational reasons to explain irrational feelings, and that's neveer a good sign.
I believe in the complexity of the human story, and that there's no way you can tell that story in one way and say, 'this is it.' Always there will be someone who can tell it differently depending on where they are standing ... this is the way I think the world's stories should be told: from many different perspectives.
A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.
'It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,' cried the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law.
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