Quotes about contribution
page 9

Léon Foucault photo

“To contribute usefully to the advance of science, one must sometimes not disdain from undertaking simple verifications.”

Léon Foucault (1819–1868) French physicist

As quoted in The Life and Science of Léon Foucault : The Man Who Proved the Earth Rotates (2003) by William Tobin, p. 72, ISBN 0521808553

George William Curtis photo
Bertolt Brecht photo

“Science has only one commandment: contribution.”

Andrea, in Scene 13, p. 122
As translated by Howard Brenton (1980)
Life of Galileo (1939)
Variant: Science knows only one commandment — contribute to science.

Joseph Hayne Rainey photo
John Calvin photo

“The worship of images is intimately connected with that of the saints. They were rejected by the primitive Christians; but St Irenæus, who lived in the second century, relates that there was a sect of heretics, the Carpocratians, who worshipped, in the manner of Pagans, different images representing Jesus Christ, St Paul, and others. The Gnostics had also images; but the church rejected their use in a positive manner, and a Christian writer of the third century, Minutius Felix, says that “the Pagans reproached the Christians for having neither temples nor simulachres;” and I could quote many other evidences that the primitive Christians entertained a great horror against every kind of images, considering them as the work of demons. It appears, however, that the use of pictures was creeping into the church already in the third century, because the council of Elvira in Spain, held in 305, especially forbids to have any picture in the Christian churches. These pictures were generally representations of some events, either of the New 5 In his Treatise given below. 11 or of the Old Testament, and their object was to instruct the common and illiterate people in sacred history, whilst others were emblems, representing some ideas connected with the doctrines [008] of Christianity. It was certainly a powerful means of producing an impression upon the senses and the imagination of the vulgar, who believe without reasoning, and admit without reflection; it was also the most easy way of converting rude and ignorant nations, because, looking constantly on the representations of some fact, people usually end by believing it. This iconographic teaching was, therefore, recommended by the rulers of the church, as being useful to the ignorant, who had only the understanding of eyes, and could not read writings.6 Such a practice was, however, fraught with the greatest danger, as experience has but too much proved. It was replacing intellect by sight.7 Instead of elevating man towards God, it was bringing down the Deity to the level of his finite intellect, and it could not but powerfully contribute to the rapid spread of a pagan anthropomorphism in the church.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Source: A Treatise of Relics (1543), p. 10-11

Angela Merkel photo
Harold Davenport photo
Aleksandr Vasilevsky photo
Charles, Prince of Wales photo
John Ralston Saul photo
Ben Carson photo

“What a wonderful thing is to be able to contribute to the restoration of someone's health. It's not only a feeling that I'm worth something, but that I have something to contribute.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 165

Richard Stallman photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Jack McDevitt photo
Pekka Haavisto photo

“In the new environment and markets it is not enough to only promote the export of Finland. We need the political view where the countries are developing and political abilities to contribute the direction of development, e. g. in the human rights and security issues.”

Pekka Haavisto (1958) Finnish politician

Source: Pekka Haavisto: Moninapaista arvokeskustelua http://www.ulkopolitiikka.fi/article/910/pekka_haavisto_moninapaista_arvokeskustelua/ Ulkopolitiikka 4/2011” ”Uusissa toimintaympäristöissä ja uusilla markkinoilla ei riitä, että edistetään Suomen vientiä. Pitää olla myös poliittinen näkemys siitä, mihin maat ja alueet ovat kehittymässä, sekä poliittisia valmiuksia vaikuttaa kehityksen suuntaan, esimerkiksi ihmisoikeus- ja turvallisuuskysymyksiin.”

El Lissitsky photo
Éric Pichet photo
David Lloyd George photo

“In the year 1910 we were beset by an accumulation of grave issues—rapidly becoming graver. … It was becoming evident to discerning eyes that the Party and Parliamentary system was unequal to coping with them. … The shadow of unemployment was rising ominously above the horizon. Our international rivals were forging ahead at a great rate and jeopardising our hold on the foreign trade which had contributed to the phenomenal prosperity of the previous half-century, and of which we had made such a muddled and selfish use. Our working population, crushed into dingy and mean streets, with no assurance that they would not be deprived of their daily bread by ill-health or trade fluctuations, were becoming sullen with discontent. Whilst we were growing more dependent on overseas supplies for our food, our soil was gradually going out of cultivation. The life of the countryside was wilting away and we were becoming dangerously over-industrialised. Excessive indulgence in alcoholic drinks was undermining the health and efficiency of a considerable section of the population. The Irish controversy was poisoning our relations with the United States of America. A great Constitutional struggle over the House of Lords threatened revolution at home, another threatened civil war at our doors in Ireland. Great nations were arming feverishly for an apprehended struggle into which we might be drawn by some visible or invisible ties, interests, or sympathies. Were we prepared for all the terrifying contingencies?”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

War Memoirs: Volume I (London: Odhams, 1938), p. 21.
War Memoirs

Theo van Doesburg photo
Joel Fuhrman photo
John Bardeen photo
Hema Malini photo
Thomas Robert Malthus photo

“I feel no doubt whatever that the parish laws of England have contributed to raise the price of provisions and to lower the real price of labour.”

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) British political economist

Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter V, paragraph 13, lines 1-3

Albert O. Hirschman photo
Alexander von Humboldt photo
George William Foote photo

“It will yet be the proud boast of woman that she never contributed a line to the Bible.”

George William Foote (1850–1915) British secularist and journal editor

As quoted in The Bible (1901) by John Remsburg, p. 409

Max Horkheimer photo

“The basic ideals and concepts of rationalist metaphysics were rooted in the concept of the universally human, of mankind, and their formalization implies that they have been severed from their human content. How this dehumanization of thinking affects the very foundations of our civilization can be illustrated by analysis of the principle of the majority, which is inseparable from the principle of democracy. In the eyes of the average man, the principle of the majority is often not only a substitute for but an improvement upon objective reason: since men are after all the best judges of their own interests, the resolutions of a majority, it is thought, are certainly as valuable to a community as the intuitions of a so-called superior reason. … What does it mean to say that “a man knows his own interests best”—how does he gain this knowledge, what evidences that his knowledge is correct? In the proposition, “A man knows [his own interests] best,” there is an implicit reference to an agency that is not totally arbitrary … to some sort of reason underlying not only means but ends as well. If that agency should turn out to be again merely the majority, the whole argument would constitute a tautology. The great philosophical tradition that contributed to the founding of modern democracy was not guilty of this tautology, for it based the principles of government upon … the assumption that the same spiritual substance or moral consciousness is present in each human being. In other words, respect for the majority was based on a conviction that did not itself depend on the resolutions of the majority.”

Source: Eclipse of Reason (1947), pp. 26-27.

John Howard photo
Sun Myung Moon photo

“In daily life, which sex is usually more disruptive or problem-causing? Percentage-wise, it is usually women. What contributes to that? It is mainly because they lack perseverance.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

Perseverance and Contemplation http://www.unification.net/1978/780827.html (1978-08-27)

Jan Toporowski photo
Ralph George Hawtrey photo
Simone de Beauvoir photo
Clement Attlee photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
Warren Farrell photo
A.C. Cuza photo

“The science of anti-Semitism has as its object Judaism as a social problem, being thus, necessarily, the synthesis of all sciences that can contribute to its solution.”

A.C. Cuza (1857–1947) Romanian politician

From "Ştiinţa antisemitismului" ("The Science of Anti-Semitism"), Apararea Nationala ("The National Defense") No. 16, Nov. 15, 1922, lst year.

Joseph Chamberlain photo
Sarah Schulman photo
Ron Paul photo
Adrianne Wadewitz photo

“Legendary in the Wikipedia world, Wadewitz had more than 50,000 'edits' or contributions to her credit. She also was the author of 36 'featured' articles, the highest distinction bestowed by other Wikipedians based on accuracy, fairness, style and comprehensiveness.”

Adrianne Wadewitz (1977–2014) academic and Wikipedian

Woo, Elaine (April 23, 2014). "Adrianne Wadewitz dies at 37; helped diversify Wikipedia" http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-adrianne-wadewitz-20140424,0,1077455.story. Los Angeles Times.
About

John F. Kennedy photo

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

"Remarks at a Closed-circuit Television Broadcast on Behalf of the National Cultural Center (527)" (29 November 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx
1962

Thomas Jefferson photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“I believe that every employee, from the CEO suite to the factory floor, contributes to a business’ success, so everybody should share in the rewards – especially those putting in long hours for little pay.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)

Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood photo

“Let me beg my readers to do their utmost for the success of the Peace Ballot. There is no single thing which they can do of greater value for Peace. … Every vote is wanted and may contribute to prevent war and save the lives of countless thousands of our fellow citizens.”

Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (1864–1958) lawyer, politician and diplomat in the United Kingdom

As quoted in The Avoidable War : Lord Cecil and the Policy of Principle, 1933-1935 (1999) by J. Kenneth Brody, Ch. 11 : Voting For Peace, p. 173

François-Noël Babeuf photo

“The opinion which you give us the contribution which can be derived from women is sensible and judicious. We will benefit. We all know the influence which this interesting sex can possess, which cannot bear more indifferently than we the yoke of tyranny. And which is endowed with less courage, when it is a question of contriving to break it.”

François-Noël Babeuf (1760–1797) French political agitator and journalist of the French Revolutionary period

L'avis que tu nous donnes sur la partie qu'on peut en tirer des femmes est sensé et judicieux; nous en profiterons. Nous connaissons toutes l'influences que peut avoir ce sexe intéressant qui ne supporte pas plus indifféremment que nous le joug de la tyrannie; et qui n'est doué d'un moindre courage, lorsqu'il s'agit de concourir à le briser.
[in Gracchus Babeuf avec les Egaux, Jean-Marc Shiappa, Les éditions ouvrières, 1991, 44, 27082 2892-7]
On women

Lyndall Urwick photo
Richard Stallman photo
Pete Stark photo

“Aside from the wisdom of going to war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. The administration admits to a cost of around $200 billion! Now, wealthy individuals won't pay. They've got big tax cuts already. Corporations won't pay. They'll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the Republicans. Rich kids won't pay. Their daddies will get them deferments as Big George did for George W. Well then, who will pay? School kids will pay. There'll be no money to keep them from being left behind -- way behind. Seniors will pay. They'll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won't be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war. Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.”

Pete Stark (1931–2020) American politician

Statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, October 8, 2002, in opposition to the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq

Masiela Lusha photo

“Every one of us strives to be a better person; and if I am to contribute one thing of myself, it would be compassion.”

Masiela Lusha (1985) Albanian actress, writer, author

Statement at the Masiela Lusha Foundatinon board page http://www.masielalushafoundation.org/board.php

Albert Einstein photo

“If anything, we Generals and minorities continue to contribute constructively to every facet of life in this country.”

Kenneth Zinck (1959) Fijian politician

Calls for greater minority representation in the House of Representatives, 10 August 2005

Dwight D. Eisenhower photo
Michael Szenberg photo
Robert Fisk photo
Maxwell D. Taylor photo
Paul Krugman photo

“What’s odd about Friedman’s absolutism on the virtues of markets and the vices of government is that in his work as an economist’s economist he was actually a model of restraint. As I pointed out earlier, he made great contributions to economic theory by emphasizing the role of individual rationality—but unlike some of his colleagues, he knew where to stop. Why didn’t he exhibit the same restraint in his role as a public intellectual?
The answer, I suspect, is that he got caught up in an essentially political role. Milton Friedman the great economist could and did acknowledge ambiguity. But Milton Friedman the great champion of free markets was expected to preach the true faith, not give voice to doubts. And he ended up playing the role his followers expected. As a result, over time the refreshing iconoclasm of his early career hardened into a rigid defense of what had become the new orthodoxy.
In the long run, great men are remembered for their strengths, not their weaknesses, and Milton Friedman was a very great man indeed—a man of intellectual courage who was one of the most important economic thinkers of all time, and possibly the most brilliant communicator of economic ideas to the general public that ever lived. But there’s a good case for arguing that Friedmanism, in the end, went too far, both as a doctrine and in its practical applications. When Friedman was beginning his career as a public intellectual, the times were ripe for a counterreformation against Keynesianism and all that went with it. But what the world needs now, I’d argue, is a counter-counterreformation.”

Paul Krugman (1953) American economist

"Who Was Milton Friedman?", The New York Review of Books (February 15, 2007)
The New York Review of Books articles

Francisco Varela photo
Jimmy Wales photo

“Quite frankly, several of the people who contributed to the article should be banned from coming near a keyboard until they have learned to engage in proper encyclopedia writing.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

Source: In a discussion about Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:BonziBUDDY&diff=74314772&oldid=74246581 (07 September 2006)

Philip Kapleau photo
Oliver Sacks photo
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan photo

“This is an honour that reflects the quality of science supported by the Medical Research Council, in particular at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In my case, credit should go to the numerous dedicated postdocs, students, associates and colleagues who made crucial contributions to the work.”

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (1952) Nobel prize winning American and British structural biologist

Quoted in Knighthood for Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, 31 December 2011, 19 December 2013, NDTV http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/knighthood-for-venkatraman-ramakrishnan-162464,

Yehudi Menuhin photo

“I imagine that whatever contribution I can make to teaching derives from having had to rethink and re-create my technique.”

Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999) American violinist and conductor

Violinist Yehudi Menuhin

Christopher Hitchens photo
River Phoenix photo

“Lent: “What would you consider your major contribution to the field of scholarship? Your assessment of what you’ve done in a lifetime.””

Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) American journalist

<BR> Herman: The introduction of a structural model of the media, the use of pairing analysis, and the use of these methodological devices or frameworks in dozens of applications. The techniques are not new, but I and my co-authors have possibly given them more salience. Also, not new but hopefully in a useful framework is the focus on the mass media as elite-based and elite-serving institutions, with biases that follow accordingly. In a way, my writings have virtually all been an exposure of these biases and a demonstration that the idea of a “party line” applies to the mainstream US media as well as to media in authoritarian countries. Lent and Amazeen (2015), Key Thinkers in Critical Communication Scholarship, Interview with Edward S. Herman on September 2, 2013, pp. 51-52.
2010s

Antoni Tàpies photo
Stephen Grellet photo

“If I can anyway contribute to the diversion or improvement of the country in which I live, I shall leave it, when I am summoned out of it, with the satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived in vain.”

Stephen Grellet (1773–1855) American Quaker missionary

Statement in The Spectator (1711), as quoted in The Reign of Queen Anne (1902) by Justin McCarthy
Misattributed

Moe Berg photo

“Maybe I’m not in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame like so many of my baseball buddies, but I’m happy I had the chance to play pro ball and am especially proud of my contributions to my country. Perhaps I could not hit like Babe Ruth, but I spoke more languages than he did.”

Moe Berg (1902–1972) baseball player, spy

As quoted by Cia.gov https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2013-featured-story-archive/moe-berg.html prior to his death in (1972)

Alfred de Zayas photo
Michael Moorcock photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“The Public Administration neither comprises nor heads any branch of government but is subordinate to all three of them. Like Congress, president, and courts, the Public Administration makes its distinctive contribution in a manner consistent with its peculiar place, which is one of subordination.”

John Rohr (1934–2011) American political scientist

John Rohr (1990) "The constitutional case for public administration." In G. L. Wamsley et al. (eds.), Refounding public administration, Sage. p. 80

Christopher Hitchens photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
S. I. Hayakawa photo
Samuel Johnson photo

“Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.”

Preface http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/preface.html
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

Robert A. Heinlein photo
William H. Rehnquist photo
John McCain photo
Robert Fogel photo