Video message sent to Joe Biden in response to his suggestions for green jobs (2009)
The Quotable Sir John
“Research is society’s investment in its future.”
Just Asking: Ari Ne’eman, co-founder of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network
Context: If research is society’s investment in its future, our society does not prioritize the future of autistic people.
“It's a wicked world, and when a clever man turns his brain to crime it is the worst of all.”
Source: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Source: https://clusterbcs.com/en/in-memoriam-kirk-r-smith-1947-2020-2/
Source: Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered (1973), p. 35.
“It [animal research] is immoral even if it's essential.”
Washington Post 1989 May 30.
On animal research and activism against it
“He's very clever, but sometimes his brains go to his head.”
Quoted by her step-daughter Violet in The Listener, June 11, 1953.
Of F. E. Smith.
“They get entangled in non-essentials and fall into the trap set by cleverer people.”
Source: Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), Who Stands Fast?, p. 4.
Context: The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. The "reasonable" people's failure is obvious. With the best intentions and a naive lack of realism, they think that with a little reason they can bend back into position the framework that has got out of joint. In their lack of vision they want to do justice to all sides, and so the conflicting forces wear them down with nothing achieved. Disappointed by the world's unreasonableness, they see themselves condemned to ineffectiveness; they step aside in resignation or collapse before the stronger party.
Still more pathetic is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. Fanatics think that their single-minded principles qualify them to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull they rush at the red cloak instead of the person who is holding it; they exhaust themselves and are beaten. They get entangled in non-essentials and fall into the trap set by cleverer people.
Source: Enterprise architecture as strategy, 2006, p. ix
