Lavoisier was right in the deepest, almost holy, way. His passion harnessed feeling to the service of reason; another kind of passion was the price. Reason cannot save us and can even persecute us in the wrong hands; but we have no hope of salvation without reason. The world is too complex, too intransigent; we cannot bend it to our simple will.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Reason is essential for understanding a complex world but must be tempered with passion; it cannot save us alone but offers no alternative hope.
- In plain terms
- Reason helps us deal with a hard world but needs passion to work and is still our only hope.
- What can you take from it?
- Use reason guided by passion as it is our only tool for complex realities.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Can reason alone solve human problems?
- How do passion and reason interact?
Another view
Reason alone sometimes solves complex social problems.
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