Dubos, René

René Dubos: Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York City. Other books he authored include: The Dreams of Reason, 1961; The Torch of Life, 1962; The Unseen World, 1962; Man Adapting, 1965; Man, Medicine and Environment, 1968, and So Human an Animal, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969.

No one can question . . . that the world of living as well as of lifeless things revealed by scientific investigation is incomparably grander than anything that emerges from abstract thought or from the most vivid imagination. The Dreams of Reason, 1961.

 

Science is like a revelation that enlarges awareness by sharpening and extending the direct perceptions from which philosophy originated. Ibid.

 

The incredible beauty of the earth as seen from space results largely from the fact that our planet is covered with living things. What gives vibrant colors and exciting variety to the surface of the earth is the fact that it is literally a living organism. From a lecture at the Smithsonian Institution, October 2, 1969.

 

Adaptability is an asset for biological survival, but paradoxically, the greatest threat to the quality of human life is that the human species is so immensely adaptable that it can survive even under the most objectionable conditions. Reason Awake, 1970.

 

The spaceship Earth is the cage within and against which man has developed in his evolutionary past and continues to develop his biological and mental characteristics. As the terrestrial environment deteriorates so does humanness and the quality of human life. Ibid.

 

The total effect of the environmental crisis cannot be evaluated because it is spread throughout the whole social structure. Ibid.

 

Today, every person with an automobile has the power of a king. Personal control of a 350-horsepower automobile is equivalent in energy terms to the power of an Egyptian pharaoh with 350 horses or 3,500 slaves at his command. Celebrations of Life, 1981.