John B. S. Haldane

“We do not know, in most cases, how far social failure and success are due to heredity, and how far to environment. But environment is the easier of the two to improve.”

“I think, however, that so long as our present economic and national systems continue, scientific research has little to fear.”

“If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation it would appear that God has a special fondness for stars and beetles.”

“I have never yet met a healthy person who worried very much about his health, or a really good person who worried much about his own soul.”

“Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.”

“The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.”

“And if we must educate our poets and artists in science, we must educate our masters, labour and capital, in art.”

“A fairly bright boy is far more intelligent and far better company than the average adult.”