Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.Read
Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.
Interpretation
Science and technology change our lives, but our understanding is shaped by memory, tradition, and myth.
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. highlights the duality of human experience in relation to advancements. While science and technology bring about significant transformations in how we live, it is our memories, beliefs, and traditions that influence how we respond to these changes. This underscores the importance of cultural context and historical understanding in interpreting modern innovations.
In practice
In a speech about the impact of technology on society, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of cultural heritage.
Anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman.
There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war.
The genius of impeachment lay in the fact that it could punish the man without punishing the office.
Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.
Man generally is entangled in insoluble problems; history is consequently a tragedy in which we are all involved, whose keynote is anxiety and frustration, not progress and fulfilment.
In view of the tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic it is refreshing to be reminded by Freethinkers that free thought and skepticism are robustly in the American tradition. After all the Founding Fathers began by omitting God from the American Constitution.
Without any doubt, the regularity which astronomy shows us in the movements of the comets takes place in all phenomena. The trajectory of a simple molecule of air or vapour is regulated in a manner as certain as that of the planetary orbits; the only difference between them is that which is contributed by our ignorance. Probability is relative in part to this ignorance, and in part to our knowledge.
It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.
[A]ll knowledge is one. When a light brightens and illuminates a corner of a room, it adds to the general illumination of the entire room. Over and over again, scientific discoveries have provided answers to problems that had no apparent connection with the phenomena that gave rise to the discovery.
Experimentation is the least arrogant method of gaining knowledge. The experimenter humbly asks a question of nature.
Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.
There may have been many big bangs, one of which created our universe. The other bangs created other universes.
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