J. B. S. Haldane

“I'd lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.”

“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.”

“Even on the basis of our present knowledge, we have no right to assume that the universe has a purpose.”

“I am a part of nature, and, like other parts of nature, I am swayed by its laws.”

“Cancer's a funny thing.”

“In fact, words are well adapted for description and the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds of precise thought other symbols are much better.”

“My own suspicion is that the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine.”

“An ounce of algebra is worth a ton of verbal argument.”

“Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public.”

“I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages: (i) this is worthless nonsense; (ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view; (iii) this is true, but quite unimportant; (iv) I always said so.”

“In scientific thought we adopt the simplest theory which will explain all the facts under consideration and enable us to predict new facts of the same kind.”

“From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to be a provider of tapeworms.”