Michael Crichton Quotes

The only ethical principle which has made science possible is that the truth shall be told all the time. If we do not penalize false statements made in error, we open up the way for false statements by intention. And a false statement of fact, made deliberately, is the most serious crime a scientist can commit.

Politicians, real-estate agents, used-car salesmen, and advertising copy-writers are expected to stretch facts in self-serving directions, but scientists who falsify their results are regarded by their peers as committing an inexcusable crime. Yet the sad fact is that the history of science swarms with cases of outright fakery and instances of scientists who unconsciously distorted their work by seeing it through lenses of passionately held beliefs.

I am a very bad scientist. I will do anything to make a human being feel better, even if it's unscientific. No scientist worthy of the name could say such a thing.

Is the Scientific Paper a Fraud?

Fudging the data in any way whatsoever is quite literally a sin against the holy ghost of science. I'm not religious, but I put it that way because I feel so strongly. It's the one thing you do not ever do. You've got to have standards.

But the imposition of morality onto science, - where it does not belong - has become rampant in recent years.

While intellectually you are giants, morally you are pygmies.

Passion, prejudice, and error, are characteristics of human nature ….. Literary talents may be prostituted, and the powers of genius debased to subserve the purposes of ambition or avarice.

Science transcends mere politics. As recent history demonstrates, scientists are as willing to work for a Tojo, a Hitler, or a Stalin as for the free nations of the West.

The science only perpetuates the vicious cycle of cronyism, power-mongering, influence peddling, corruption, bureaucracy, all of that.

The problem we are faced with is that the meteorological establishment and the global warming lobby research bodies which receive large funding are now apparently so corrupted by the largesse they receive that the scientists in them have sold their integrity.

Honour sits smiling at the sale of truth.

There's no scientist I know who wouldn't rather be a charlatan. And when circumstances allow you to be both, why it's great fun!

To sell oneself for thirty pieces of silver is an honest transaction; but to sell oneself to one s own conscience is to abandon mankind.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved.

Who is so firm that can't be seduced?

Mathematics should be mixed not only with physics but with ethics.

Then again, Solomon was human. And that meant he was flawed (Go on, take a look at yourself in the mirror. A good long look, if you can bear it. See? Flawed's putting it mildly, isn't it?)

Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.

Doing the right thing doesn't always bring success. But compromising ethics almost always leads to failure.

Although no explanation can be expected to be satisfactory, it remains a possibility among others that Mendel was deceived by some assistant who knew too well what was expected. This possibility is supported by independent evidence that the data of most, if not all, of the experiments have been falsified so as to agree closely with Mendel's expectations.

Rome has betrayed itself. It knew the truth and chose violence, it knew humaneness and it chose tyranny.

I refuse to make money out of my science. My laurel is not for sale like so many bales of cotton.

You weren't a decent man and you didn't do your best. We none of us were and none of us did.

Many a man would have turned rogue if he knew how.