It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
Winston ChurchillRead
This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the responsibility that knowledge brings and the hope that scientific advancements will lead to peace rather than destruction.
Winston Churchill highlights the profound impact of scientific revelations on humanity, calling for deep reflection on their potential consequences. He expresses a desire that the powerful forces unveiled through knowledge be directed towards fostering peace and prosperity, rather than chaos and destruction, urging humanity to use these advancements wisely.
Themes
KnowledgeResponsibilityPeaceNatureScientific Advancements
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about scientific innovation and ethics, one might refer to Churchill's thoughts on the responsibility that comes with new discoveries.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Winston ChurchillRead
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Winston ChurchillRead
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Winston ChurchillRead
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
Winston ChurchillRead
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston ChurchillRead
Similar quotes
Individualism regards man - every man - as an independent, sovereign entity who possesses an inalienable right to his own life, a right derived from his nature as a rational being. Individualism holds that a civilized society, or any form of association, cooperation or peaceful co-existence among men, can be achieved only on the basis of the recognition of individual rights - and that a group, as such, has no rights other than the individual rights of its members.
Ayn RandRead
You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.
Ralph McgillRead
It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.
Margaret MeadRead
The more we retreat from the culture at large the more room we will have to carve out lives of meaning, the more we will be able to wall off the flood of illusions disseminated by mass culture and the more we will retain sanity in an insane world.
Chris HedgesRead
We want a world where life is preserved, and the quality of life is enriched for everybody, not only for the privileged.
Isabel AllendeRead
I'm tired of saying, "How wonderful you are!" to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got, and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it.
Margaret MitchellRead