Two polar groups: at one pole we have the literary intellectuals, at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension.
C.P. SnowRead
I was moving among two groups... who had almost ceased to communicate at all, who in intellectual, moral, and psychological climate had so little in common that... one might have crossed the ocean.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the disconnect and lack of communication between different social or intellectual groups.
C.P. Snow comments on the significant divide between two groups that, despite existing in the same environment, have drifted apart in terms of communication, understanding, and shared values. This highlights the barriers that can develop in society, leading to isolation and an inability to bridge differences, which can be detrimental to collaboration and progress.
In practice
In a speech about bridging divides in society, one could use this quote to illustrate the importance of fostering communication.
Two polar groups: at one pole we have the literary intellectuals, at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension.
Advertising degrades the people it appeals to; it deprives them of their will to choose.
If something is going on, I hear about it. I like to talk to people, I socialise. Television is a waste of time. Human contact is what matters.
It is at least a small comfort to me, as a gay rights and marriage equality advocate, to know that like any marriage, gay and lesbian couples are subject to the same complications and hardships that afflict marriages between heterosexual couples.
I would never be part of anything. I would never really belong anywhere, and I knew it, and all my life would be the same, trying to belong, and failing. Always something would go wrong. I am a stranger and I always will be, and after all I didn’t really care.
Goodnight, my darlings, I'll see you tomorrow.
As it happened, I didn't grow up to be the kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although the men I have known have had many virtues and have taken me to live in many places I have come to love, they have never been John Wayne, and they have never taken me to the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow. Deep in that part of my heart where artificial rain forever falls, that is still the line I want to hear.
We live in a society where we may have differences, of course, but we learn to celebrate these differences.
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