3 Freeman Dyson Quotes on Humanity

Freeman Dyson quotes on humanity

12. It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.

29. In the time of Jesus and for many centuries afterwards, there was a free market in human bodies. The institution of slavery was based on the legal right of slave-owners to buy and sell their property in a free market. Only in the nineteenth century did the abolitionist movement, with Quakers and other religious believers in the lead, succeed in establishing the principle that the free market does not extend to human bodies. The human body is God's temple and not a commercial commodity. And now in the twenty-first century, for the sake of equity and human brotherhood, we must maintain the principle that the free market does not extend to human genes. Let us hope that we can reach a consensus on this question without fighting another civil war.

35. After sketching his program for the scientific revolution that he foresaw, Bacon ends his account with a prayer: 'Humbly we pray that this mind may be steadfast in us, and that through these our hands, and the hands of others to whom thou shalt give the same spirit, thou wilt vouchsafe to endow the human family with new mercies'. That is still a good prayer for all of us as we begin the twenty-first century.