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Science without conscience is the death of the soul.
Francois Rabelais
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The pursuit of scientific knowledge must be governed by moral considerations to prevent harm to humanity.

Francois Rabelais suggests that scientific advances without ethical oversight can lead to detrimental consequences for individuals and society. This quote emphasizes the importance of blending intellectual pursuit with a sense of responsibility and compassion, highlighting that the potential for innovation can become destructive when divorced from humanity's moral compass.

Themes

ScienceConscienceMoralityEthicsHumanity

In practice

Example use cases

During a seminar on bioethics, this quote can serve to highlight the importance of moral responsibility in scientific research.

More from Francois Rabelais

Science without conscience is the soul's perdition.
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If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks.
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We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.
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Bring down the curtain, the farce is over
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There is no truer cause of unhappiness amongst men than, where naturally expecting charity and benevolence, they receive harm and vexation.
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If you want to avoid seeing an idiot, break the mirror.
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