Jacob Bronowski Quotes

I saw science as being in harmony with humanity.

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

We talk of our mastery of nature, which sounds very grand; but the fact is we respectfully adapt ourselves, first, to her ways.

.... we are a part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow.

Nature has her own best mode of doing each thing, and she has somewhere told it plainly, if we will keep our eyes and ears open. If not, she will not be slow in undeceiving us, when we prefer our own way to hers.

The world is a sacred vessel. It should not be meddled with. It should not be owned. If you try to meddle with it you will ruin it. If you try to own it you will lose it

Only the intelligent knows how to identify all things as one. . . . When one is at ease with himself, one is near Tao. This is to let Nature take its own course.

The volume of Nature is the book of knowledge.

Temperance gives nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.

We cannot fail in following nature.

Knowledge is not just power - it is control.

When man becomes reconciled to nature, when space becomes his true background, these words and concepts will have lost their meaning, and we will no longer have to use them.

To know is to control.

Power is the by-product of understanding.

Nature is based on harmony. So it says if we want to survive and become more like nature, then we actually have to understand that it's cooperation versus competition.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

We cannot command Nature except by obeying her.

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.

Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.

We can save ourselves, but only if we let go of the myth of dominance and mastery and learn to work with nature.

For me, it always comes back to the land, respecting the land, the wildlife, the plants, the rivers, mountains, and deserts, the absolute essential bedrock of our lives. This is the source of where my power lies, the source of where all our power lies. We are animal. We are Earth. We are water. We are a community of human beings living on this planet together. And we forget that. We become disconnected, we lose our center point of gravity, that stillness that allows us to listen to life on a deeper level and to meet each other in a fully authentic and present way.