Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow Quotes
No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even then be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement? On the contrary, has not science the noble privilege of carrying on its controversies without personal quarrels?
Virchow, Rudolf. Preface. Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für klinische Medicin, vol. 1, no. 1, 1847.
Also published in What Do You Care What Other People Think, 1988. This was his last publication. He realized that NASA was under so much political and public relations pressure, that important science issues could not be faced squarely. So he wrote his own appendix to the report which was embarrassing to some of the administrators and contractors but was really appreciated by almost all of the scientists and engineers.
The scientist insists on verification; the religious theologian does not; the philosopher sometimes does and sometimes does not.
This unfortunately happens in Congress all the time. A good example is {640730}.
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder of social medicine, and to his colleagues, the "Pope of medicine".
