Quote

One has only to contemplate the magnitude of this task to concede that the spontaneous generation of a living organism is impossible. Yet here we are-as a result, I believe, of spontaneous generation.

George Wald

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

George Wald
Age: 90 †
Born: 1906
Born: November 18
Died: 1997
Died: April 12
Biochemist
Biologist
Chemist
Neuroscientist
Physician
Physiologist
Scientist
New York City
New York
Generation
Organism
Result
Contemplate
Evolution
Magnitude
Generations
Organisms
Results
Contemplating
Impossible
Spontaneous
Living
Task
Believe
Tasks
Concede

More quotes by George Wald

Image
Death seems to have been a rather late invention in evolution. One can go a long way in evolution before encountering an authentic corpse.
George Wald
Image
We are living in a world in which all wars are wars of defense.
George Wald
Image
The Vietnamese have a secret weapon. It's their willingness to die beyond our willingness to kill. In effect, they've been saying, You can kill us, but you'll have to kill a lot of us you may have to kill all of us. And, thank heaven, we are not yet ready to do that.
George Wald
Image
All War Departments are now Defense Departments. This is all part of the doubletalk of our time. The aggressor is always on the other side.
George Wald
Image
I have lived much of my life among molecules. They are good company.
George Wald
Image
A scientist lives with all reality. There is nothing better. To know reality is to accept it, and eventually to love it.
George Wald
Image
Most modern biologists, having reviewed with satisfaction the downfall of the spontaneous generation hypothesis, yet unwilling to accept the alternative belief in special creation, are left with nothing.
George Wald
Image
The trouble with most of the things that people want is that they get them.
George Wald
Image
Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.
George Wald
Image
The thought that we're in competition with Russians or with Chinese is all a mistake, and trivial. We are one species, with a world to win.
George Wald
Image
Evolution advances, not by a priori design, but by the selection of what works best out of whatever choices offer. We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.
George Wald
Image
We have to get rid of those nuclear weapons.
George Wald
Image
The only point of government is to safeguard and foster life.
George Wald
Image
A scientist is in a sense a learned small boy. There is something of the scientist in every small boy. Others must outgrow it. Scientists can stay that way all their lives.
George Wald
Image
The only use for an atomic bomb is to keep somebody else from using one. It can give us no protection - only the doubtful satisfaction of retaliation...
George Wald
Image
Dropping those atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime.
George Wald
Image
I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution.
George Wald
Image
Nuclear weapons offer us nothing but a balance of terror, and a balance of terror is still terror.
George Wald
Image
I can conceive of no nightmare so terrifying as establishing communication with a so-called superior (or, if you wish, advanced) technology in outer space.
George Wald
Image
A peacetime draft is the most un-American thing I know.
George Wald