Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime.
Jacob BronowskiRead
When Coleridge tried to define beauty, he returned always to one deep thought; beauty, he said, is unity in variety! Science is nothing else than the search to discover unity in the wild variety of nature,-or, more exactly, in the variety of our experience. Poetry, painting, the arts are the same search, in Coleridge's phrase, for unity in variety.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Beauty is found in the balance between different elements, and both science and art explore this concept.
In this quote, Jacob Bronowski reflects on Coleridge's view that beauty arises from finding a cohesive connection amid diverse elements. He suggests that both science and the arts are fundamentally engaged in the quest to uncover this harmony, emphasizing that whether through empirical exploration or creative expression, the pursuit of understanding unity amidst variety defines fundamental human experience.
Themes
BeautyUnityVarietyScienceArtExperience
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about creativity, this quote could illustrate the connection between scientific inquiry and artistic expression.
More from Jacob Bronowski
All quotes →There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy.
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To me the most interesting thing about man is that he is an animal who practices art and science and in every known society practices both together.
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A man becomes creative, whether he is an artist or scientist, when he finds a new unity in the variety of nature. He does so by finding a likeness between things which were not thought alike before.
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The values by which we are to survive are not rules for just and unjust conduct, but are those deeper illuminations in whose light justice and injustice, good and evil, means and ends are seen in fearful sharpness of outline.
Jacob BronowskiRead
The basis for poetry and scientific discovery is the ability to comprehend the unlike in the like and the like in the unlike.
Jacob BronowskiRead
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