The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, a middle, and an end.
John Charles Polanyi

The most exciting thing in the twentieth century is science.
John Charles Polanyi

The respect for human rights, essential if we are to use technology wisely, is not something alien that must be grafted onto science. On the contrary, it is integral to science, as also to scholarship in general.
John Charles Polanyi

The scientific and scholarly community is marked by the belief that the truth is to be found in all; none can claim it as their monopoly.
John Charles Polanyi

The time has come to underscore the fact that our and others' rights are contingent on our willingness to assert and defend them.
John Charles Polanyi

Though neglectful of their responsibility to protect science, scientists are increasingly aware of their responsibility to society.
John Charles Polanyi

Though we explore in a culturally-conditioned way, the reality we sketch is universal.
John Charles Polanyi

Today, Academies of Science use their influence around the world in support of human rights.
John Charles Polanyi

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

What makes the Universal Declaration an epochal document is first of all its global impetus and secondly the breadth of its claims, a commitment to a new social contract, binding on all the Governments of the world.
John Charles Polanyi

When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.
John Charles Polanyi

Young people ask me if this country is serious about science. They aren't thinking about the passport that they will hold, but the country that they must rely on for support and encouragement.
John Charles Polanyi