7 Quotes & Sayings By John Charles Polanyi

John Charles Polanyi was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1903. He received his medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1928. In the same year, he was awarded his Ph.D. at Harvard University with a dissertation on chemical kinetics Read more

He was a lecturer in biophysics at Harvard until 1938. During World War II, he worked for the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the Central Intelligence Agency, and worked at top secret projects for the United States government. He was professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago from 1945 to 1960.

Polanyi lived in retirement in England until his death in 1986.

1
Science gives us a powerful vocabulary, and it is impossible to produce a vocabulary with which one can only say nice things. John Charles Polanyi
2
Some dreamers demand that scientists only discover things that can be used for good. John Charles Polanyi
3
For science must breathe the oxygen of freedom. John Charles Polanyi
4
Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge. John Charles Polanyi
5
For scholarship - if it is to be scholarship - requires, in addition to liberty, that the truth take precedence over all sectarian interests, including self-interest. John Charles Polanyi
6
Under this scientific and moral pressure, the Canadian government conceded publicly that the use of these weapons in Vietnam was, in their view, a contravention of the Geneva Protocol. John Charles Polanyi