Scientists have power by virtue of the respect commanded by the discipline... We live with poets and politicians, preachers and philosophers. All have their ways of knowing, and all are valid in their proper domain. The world is too complex and interesting for one way to hold all the answers. Stephen Jay Gould
About This Quote

The power of science lies in the respect that it commands, but this respect is not given by science itself. Respect is commanded by the discipline of science. If you have some knowledge, you are automatically respected by some people, but some people may admire some other discipline. This shows that science is not the only way to understand the world.

Source: Bully For Brontosaurus: Reflections In Natural History

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More Quotes By Stephen Jay Gould
  1. We pass through this world but once. Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.

  2. We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.

  3. Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism--and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.

  4. We reveal ourselves in the metaphors we choose for depicting the cosmos in miniature.

  5. Scientists have power by virtue of the respect commanded by the discipline... We live with poets and politicians, preachers and philosophers. All have their ways of knowing, and all are valid in their proper domain. The world is too complex and interesting for one way...

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