Francois Jacob Quotes

Whenever men have looked for something solid on which to found their lives, they have chosen not the facts in which the world abounds, but the myths of an immemorial imagination.

But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.

Scientific theories tell us what is possible; myths tell us what is desirable. Both are needed to guide proper action.

I'm fascinated by almost any mythology that I can get my hands on.

Mythology works... because Indians have been bred on myths.

Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds... is not productive.

It is no coincidence that so many religious beliefs date back to times when no science could possibly have accounted satisfactorily for many of the natural phenomena inspiring scripture and myths.

Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of myth.

Our ignorance will always remain greater than our knowledge.

Gods are fragile things, they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm - not all - that religion used to fill.

Myths give us our sense of personal identity, answering the question, 'Who am I?'

Myth and mythology often serve constructive and aspirational purposes. But they also do harm.

There is no limit to what astrophysicists can do. We can be very curious.

I do believe that there are places where the mythological and the literal touch.

Myths are the prototype for all stories. When we write a story on our own it can't help but link up with all sorts of myths. Myths are like a reservoir containing every story there is.

Religion and Science are two aspects of social life, of which the former has been important as far back as we know anything of man

Science and religion are, of course, two different ways of looking at the universe; and it's the same universe with two different windows.

Myth is what we call other people's religion.

What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.

All systems require myths for their longevity.

He who has no sympathy with myths has no sympathy with men.

I'd like to find great stories from as many parts of the world as possible.

Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write.

Myths hook and bind the mind because at the same time they set the mind free: they explain the universe while allowing the universe to go on being unexplained; and we seem to need this even now, in our twentieth-century grandeur.