The Vocation Lectures: Science as a Vocation/Politics as a Vocation

... A state is a human community that (successfully) claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.

Naïve optimists have celebrated science – that is to say: the techniques of mastering life that are based on science – as the road to happiness; but I think I may be allowed to ignore this [idea] completely, in view of Nietzsche's devastating criticism of those “ultimate men” who have “invented happiness”. Who believes it, apart from a few overgrown children occupying academic or editorial chairs?

Consequently, if one’s luck is bad, one is liable to be increasingly consumed by feelings of resentment toward the agent or agents that one holds responsible for one’s victimhood, and this twisting of one’s soul in bitterness is a form of damage that the acknowledgment of the real conditions of academic life could have helped one to avoid or, at the very least, mitigate.

Bear in mind that the value of a human being does not depend on whether he has leadership qualities.

The numerous gods of yore, divested of their magic and hence assuming the shape of impersonal forces, arise from their graves, strive for power over our lives, and resume their eternal struggle among themselves.

Pessoalmente, jamais admiti que, ao longo de uma discussão, se procurasse garantir vantagem exibindo a certidão de nascimento. (...) Não importa a idade, mas sim a soberana competência do olhar, que sabe ver as realidades da vida, e a força da alma que é capaz de suportá-las e de elevar-se à altura delas

De ningún modo es cierto que la inspiración juegue un papel más importante en la ciencia que en la solución de los problemas prácticos a los que debe enfrentarse un empresario moderno, a pesar de que los científicos ensoberbecidos no lo crean así; del mismo modo que no se puede creer que la idea tiene menos importancia en la ciencia que en las artes, siendo pueril la idea de que un matemático puede arribar a resultados científicos válidos utilizando únicamente una regla de cálculo o cualquier otro aditamento para el mismo fin.