Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.
I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the conflict and harmony between science and spirituality, urging the acknowledgment of both rationality and faith.
Wernher Von Braun highlights the importance of integrating scientific knowledge with a sense of deeper meaning or higher intelligence governing the universe. He suggests that rejecting either the insights of science or the presence of a superior rationality leads to an incomplete understanding of existence, urging both scientists and theologians to respect the other’s perspective and work towards a more holistic comprehension of reality.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about science and religion, this quote can illustrate the necessity of balance between both perspectives.
More from Wernher Von Braun
All quotes →Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.
I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.
It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet.
We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.
Development of the space station is as inevitable as the rising of the sun; man has already poked his nose into space and he is not likely to pull it back . . . . There can be no thought of finishing, for aiming at the stars-both literally and figuratively-is the work of generations, and no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
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Today, much of journalism and politics are in a kind of collusion to oversimplify and personalize issues. No room for ambivalence. Plenty of room for the personal attack.
Lawyers spend their professional careers shoveling smoke.
Prejudice is a chain, it can hold you. If you prejudice, you can't move, you keep prejudice for years. Never get nowhere with that.
Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.
New York remains what it has always been : a city of ebb and flow, a city of constant shifts of population and economics, a city of virtually no rest. It is harsh, dirty, and dangerous, it is whimsical and fanciful, it is beautiful and soaring - it is not one or another of these things but all of them, all at once, and to fail to accept this paradox is to deny the reality of city existence.
Going around this country, I have found a great hunger in America for spiritual revival; for a belief that law must be based on a higher law; for a return to traditions and values that we once had. Our government, in its most sacred documents - the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and all - speak of man being created, of a Creator; that we're a nation under God.