The attitude of the true scientist towards the real limits of human understanding was unforgettably impressed on me in early youth by the obviously unpremeditated words of a great biologist; Alfred Kuhn finished a lecture to the Austrian Academy of Science with Goethe's words, It is the greatest joy of the man of thought to have explored the explorable and then calmly to revere the inexplorable. After the last word he hesitated, raised his hand in repudiation and cried, above the applause, No, not calmly, gentlemen; not calmly!
Download Image Share on X Share on Facebook

About This Quote

About Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Lorenz was a 20th-century Austrian zoologist. Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. Read more on Wikipedia →

More quotes by Konrad Lorenz

“Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know every...”
— Konrad Lorenz
experts philosophy

“The truth about an animal is far more exciting and altogether more beautiful than all the myths woven about it. ”
— Konrad Lorenz
animal beauty myth truth

“More than any other product of human scientific culture scientific knowledge is the collective property of all mankind.”
— Konrad Lorenz
culture humanity knowledge mankind

“Every danger loses some of its terror once its causes are understood.”
— Konrad Lorenz
afraid cause danger dangerous

“There is no faith which has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog”
— Konrad Lorenz
dogs

“'I don't need brains,' says the billionaire contemptuously. 'I'm brainy enough myself!' The broker cries out in desperation, 'What, in heaven's name, do you want?' 'Goodness,' is the answer.”
— Konrad Lorenz
Myself Name Want
View all quotes by Konrad Lorenz →