5 Jonas Salk Quotes on Ethics

Jonas Salk quotes on ethics

1. Edward R. Murrow: Who owns the patent on this vaccine? Jonas Salk: Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?

6. Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.

12. Some people are constructive, if you like. Others are destructive. It's this diversity in humankind that results in some making positive contributions and some negative contributions. It's necessary to have enough who make positive contributions to overcome the problems of each age.

24. I am interested in a phase that I think we are entering. I call it 'teleological evolution,' evolution with a purpose. The idea of evolution by design, designing the future, anticipating the future. I think of the need for more wisdom in the world, to deal with the knowledge that we have. At one time we had wisdom, but little knowledge. Now we have a great deal of knowledge, but do we have enough wisdom to deal with that knowledge?

31. I judge things from an evolutionary perspective - 'How does this serve and contribute to the process of our own evolution?' - rather than think of good and evil in moral terms. I see the triumph of good over evil as a manifestation of the error-correcting process of evolution.