“In popularizing a scientific development it was always crucial to sail the narrow strait between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public befuddlement.”

—  Gregory Benford , Artifact

Part 5, Chapter 7 (p. 270)
Artifact (1985)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In popularizing a scientific development it was always crucial to sail the narrow strait between the Scylla of professi…" by Gregory Benford?
Gregory Benford photo
Gregory Benford 87
Science fiction author and astrophysicist 1941

Related quotes

Lin Join-sane photo

“It is the most crucial responsibility of the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits to seek the biggest benefits for people on both sides. We will handle cross-strait affairs realistically and with patience.”

Lin Join-sane (1944) Taiwanese politician

Lin Join-sane (2013) cited in " SEF chair wants PRC tourists to transit in Taiwan http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/06/22/2003565391" on Taipei Times, 22 June 2013.

“Moved by the god of song, I set out to commemorate the heroes of old who sailed the good ship Argo up the Straits into the Black Sea and between the Cyanean Rocks in quest of the Golden Fleece.”

Apollonius of Rhodes book Argonautica

Opening lines
Argonautica (3rd century BC), Book I. Preparation and Departure

Wendell Berry photo

“Professional standards, the standards of ambition and selfishness, are always sliding downward toward expense, ostentation, and mediocrity. They tend always to narrow the ground of judgment.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"The Responsibility of the Poet".
What Are People For? (1990)
Context: Professional standards, the standards of ambition and selfishness, are always sliding downward toward expense, ostentation, and mediocrity. They tend always to narrow the ground of judgment. But amateur standards, the standards of love, are always straining upward toward the humble and the best. They enlarge the ground of judgment. The context of love is the world.

Zhang Zhijun photo

“Precedent has shown that sticking to such a political foundation (1992 Consensus) will allow continued healthy development of cross-strait ties. Damaging the foundation will damage the fruit of peaceful development in cross-strait ties, leading to endless problems across the strait.”

Zhang Zhijun (1953) Chinese politician

Zhang Zhijun (2016) cited in " Chinese official reiterates '1992 consensus' mantra http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201612230006.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 23 December 2016.

John Bunyan photo

“Now the passage being very strait and narrow… I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving to get in”

John Bunyan book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666)
Context: About this time... in a Dream or Vision, presented to me. I saw, as if they were set on The Sunny side of some high Mountain, there refreshing themselves with the pleasant beams of the Sun, while I was shivering and shrinking in the Cold, afflicted with Frost, Snow, and dark Clouds. Methought, also, betwixt me and them, I saw a wall that did compass about this mountain; now, through this wall my soul did greatly desire to pass; concluding, that if I could, I would go even into the very midst of them, and there also comfort myself with the heat of their Sun.... At the last, I saw... a narrow gap, like a little doorway in the Wall, through which I attempted to pass. Now the passage being very strait and narrow... I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving to get in... Then was I exceeding glad, and went and sat down in the midst of them, and so was comforted with the light and heat of their Sun.

Yu Zhengsheng photo

“Even those who once supported and promoted Taiwan independence, or followed those who do, so long as they are willing to help improve and develop cross-strait relations, will be welcome to visit the mainland and to join us in promoting exchanges and cooperation between the two sides of the (Taiwan) strait.”

Yu Zhengsheng (1945) Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Yu Zhengsheng (2013) cited in " China unveils 6 new cross-strait measures http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2013/06/17/381387/China-unveils.htm" on The China Post, 17 June 2013.

Philip Morrison photo

“There is a narrowness of action, though not of intent, which characterizes university departments, and scientific publications and scientists in general: if it is too popular, it is somehow vulgar and wrong. You can't really speak to those people across the street. I live next to the chemists at MIT, but I never see them. I hardly know who they are, yet between physics and chemistry it is hard to know who should study what molecule. I myself am guilty. We form communities not based on the problems of science, but on quite other things. This is part of the general split between the intelligent member of the public and the scientist who speaks in narrow focus. But the great theoretical problems which I believe the world expects will somehow be solved by science, problems close to deep philosophical issues are the very problems that find the least expertise, the least degree of organization, the least institutional support in the scientific institutions of America or indeed of the world.”

Philip Morrison (1915–2005) American astrophysicist

On specialization, Nothing is Too Wonderful to be True (1995)

Chen Fu-hai photo

“Kinmen will become a rapidly developing free economic pilot zone and base for peaceful cross-strait development.”

Chen Fu-hai (1963) Magistrate of Kinmen County

Chen Fu-hai (2014) cited in " Inauguration Speech of the Sixth Kinmen County Magistrate https://www.kinmen.gov.tw/en/cp.aspx?n=16892BCBAF2F7505" on Kinmen County Government, 24 November 2015.

“Every discipline develops standards of professional competence to which its workers are subject… Every scientific community is a society in the small, so to speak, with its own agencies of social control.”

Abraham Kaplan (1918–1993) American philosopher

Source: "The Conduct of Inquiry", p. 4.

Chen Ming-tong photo

“I hope that the team on the other side (Mainland China) can cooperate with us to contribute to the peaceful development of relations across the (Taiwan) strait, safeguard cross-strait security, and develop ideas for co-existence and mutual prosperity.”

Chen Ming-tong (1955) Taiwanese politician

Chen Ming-tong (2018) cited in " Taiwan's China policy agency hoping to work with Beijing counterpart http://focustaiwan.tw/news/acs/201803190006.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 19 March 2018.

Related topics