Jonas Salk Quotes

Are we right in adopting a teleological viewpoint, a belief that a radiant and beneficent purpose guides the fate of men and of nations and will leave us forward to that higher state of social development?

A society based on … reality must reconcile in its life, the categories of permanence and change.

It's progress I think, that science has joined philosophy, metaphysics & religion as subjects drunk people argue about in bars.

I think continuity is a good thing. But change is sometimes good, too.

When I consider the multitude of associated forces which are diffused through nature - when I think of that calm balancing of their energies which enables those most powerful in themselves, most destructive to the world's creatures and economy, to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation, I rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the beneficence, and grandeur, beyond our language to express, of the Great Disposer of us all.

Philosophy makes progress not by becoming more rigorous but by becoming more imaginative.

I'd just like to see thinking come back in style. I haven't heard a new idea in eight years. Let's get ordinary people arguing and talking again. I want to trigger new circuits in their nervous systems. That's the philosopher's job and I am the most important philosopher at this time.

Life is a process of evolution and anyone who thinks the current world order is OK does not get what evolution is all about.

…but all day long I would be training myself to think, to understand, to criticize, to know myself; I was seeking for the absolute truth: this preoccupation did not exactly encourage polite conversation.

I think I can improve a lot. I think I can get a lot better. I feel like there's much, much more I can do.

With a little luck that epoch may arrive. I am on the side of those who think that things will go better when the world has changed.

I think the long-term goal is to continue to grow as people and as a unit, individually and together, and hopefully continue to keep making records that are better every time, because if you're not moving forward, you're either standing still or regressing.

I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection.

What I'm most excited about is that there's an openness to a shift, and I do think that there's a shift happening.

If I could only fly, you see, a lot of my problems would be gone. When you think of just how much I'd save on shoes alone.

It is of itself that the divine thought thinks (since it is the most excellent of things), and its thinking is a thinking on thinking.

Progress without the reasoned freedom to think and act is regression to slavery.

I don't think there's a lot of dispute for this. You can argue that we didn't get everything done that we wanted to get done, but I can make a really strong argument, and I think prove, that by almost every measure the country's better off now than when I started.

If you stop searching, you stop living, because then you're dwelling in the past. If you're not reaching forward to any growth or future, you might as well be dead.

The philosophy of science is inherent in the process. This is to say, you think critically, you draw a conclusion based on evidence, but we all pursue discovery based on our observations. That's where science starts.

I still think that it's time for something that reflects the American people.

I think, therefore I am, therefore I am photographable.

Eventually, if you're the train that's leaving the station, people will race to catch up with you. I think that's one of the things I've figured out. You can't wait for permission to act, you just do; then people are like, "Oh, look at that person just doing over there. Maybe I'll come join them."

No one can stop or control your thought process or your thinking. You can think anything you want. But that doesn't seem to be the point. The thinking process has to be directed into a certain approach... not in accord with certain dogma, philosophy, or concepts. Instead, one has to know the thinker itself.

It doesn't have the ability to think rationally this economic model. It thinks like a drug addict: 'Where can I get my next fix?' It doesn't learn wisely. Any kind of measure of natural wisdom would be: you make a mistake, you correct it the next time around. But a drug addict feels terrible... and then says: 'I want more'. Unfortunately we have an economic model that thinks like a crack addict.