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Lancelot Hogben Quotes

There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they invented ZERO.

There has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus (Indians) made when they invented ZERO.

Lancelot Hogben
Zero, India, Revolutionary

The best therapy for emotional blocks to math is the realization that the human race took centuries or millennia to see through the mist of difficulties and paradoxes which instructors now invite us to solve in a few minutes.

Lancelot Hogben
Block, Math, Emotional

This is not the age of pamphleteers. It is the age of the engineers. The spark-gap is mightier than the pen. Democracy will not be salvaged by men who talk fluently, debate forcefully and quote aptly.

Lancelot Hogben
Men, Age, Democracy
Science for the Citizen (1938) epilogue

With full responsibility for my words as a professional biologist, I do not hesitate to say that all existing and genuine knowledge about the way in which the physical characteristics of human communities are related to their cultural capabilities can be written on the back of a postage stamp.

Lancelot Hogben
Knowledge, Responsibility, Science
Lancelot Thomas Hogben (1940). “Dangerous Thoughts”

There is nothing particularly scientific about excessive caution. Science thrives on daring generalizations.

Lancelot Hogben
Science, Daring, Caution

Mathematics is the language of size.

Lancelot Hogben
Size, Language, Mathematics
"Mathematics for the Million". Book by Lancelot Hogben, 1937.

Geneticists believe that anthropologists have decided what a race is. Ethnologists assume that their classifications embody principles which genetic science has proved correct. Politicians believe that their prejudices have the sanction of genetic laws and the findings of physical anthropology to sustain them.

Lancelot Hogben
Believe, Law, Race

It is not enough to show that drug A is better than drug B on the average. One is invited to ask, 'For which people ("& why") is drug A better than drug B, and vice versa? If drug A cures 40% and drug B cures 60%, perhaps the right choice of drug for each person would result in 100% cures.'

Lancelot Hogben
Dark, Average, People

Science for the Citizen is ... also written for the large and growing number of adolescents, who realize that they will be the first victims of the new destructive powers of science misapplied.

Lancelot Hogben
Numbers, Citizens, Growing

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