The truth is that the scientific value of Polar exploration is greatly exaggerated. The thing that takes men on such hazardous trips is really not any thirst for knowledge, but simply a yearning for adventure. ... A Polar explorer always talks grandly of sacrificing his fingers and toes to science. It is an amiable pretention, but there is no need to take it seriously.
Interpretation
The quote highlights that the true motivation behind polar exploration is often a desire for adventure rather than purely scientific pursuits.
H. L. Mencken critiques the romanticized view of polar exploration by suggesting that while explorers claim to be motivated by scientific inquiry, the more authentic motivation is their yearning for adventure and excitement. Mencken argues that the sacrifices made during such explorations are often exaggerated in the context of science, and that the true essence of these endeavors lies in a human desire for experiencing the unknown.
In practice
During a speech about scientific exploration, you could use this quote to emphasize the human spirit of adventure.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
Adventures are to the adventurous.
For me, climbing has always been about adventure and that involves difficulties, danger and exposure, so I deliberately set out to climb with as little equipment as possible.
I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth into the air without knowing the uncertainty and the exhilaration of first-born adventure.
An adventure is never an adventure when it happens. An adventure is simply physical and emotional discomfort recollected in tranquility.
I'm an adventurer, looking for treasure
Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
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