“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history or fiction. It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.”

— Rachel Carson

Acceptance speech of the National Book Award for Nonfiction (1952) for The Sea Around Us; also in Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson (1999) edited by Linda Lear, p. 91

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 "The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biograph…" by Rachel Carson?

Rachel Carson 42

American marine biologist and conservationist 1907–1964

Related quotes

“The books to be read should not be limited to those written in English…. Instead it should be devoted to the great works of history, biography, philosophy, theology, natural science, social science, and mathematics, as well as the… tradition of Western literature -- in English translation… Its aim should not be a survey of Western civilization, but an effort to understand the basic ideas and issues in Western thought.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1990), p. 316

“The aim of science was not meant to turn against every religious belief, but to illuminate the minds of the people.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century.”

J. G. Ballard (1930–2009) British writer

"Fictions of Every Kind" in Books and Bookmen (February 1971)

“I am the enfant terrible of literature and science.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Myself
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part XII - The Enfant Terrible of Literature

“Change is the principal feature of our age and literature should explore how people deal with it. The best science fiction does that, head-on.”

David Brin (1950) novelist, short story writer

Orbit interview (2002)

“Facts are not science — as the dictionary is not literature.”

Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962) American university teacher (1879-1962)

Fischerisms (1944)

“To overcome the resistance to truth, literature makes use of fictions that are images of truth.”

Harvey Mansfield (1932) Author, professor

How to Understand Politics: What the Humanities Can Say to Science (2007)
Context: Literature... seeks to entertain — and why is this?... The reason, fundamentally, is that literature knows something that science does not: the human resistance to hearing the truth. Science does not inform scientists of this basic fact.... The wisdom of literature arises mainly from its attention to this point. To overcome the resistance to truth, literature makes use of fictions that are images of truth.