Jacques Monod - Collected Quotes

"There are living systems; there is no living 'matter'. No substance, no single molecule, extracted and isolated from a living being possess, of its own, the aforementioned paradoxical properties. They are present in living systems only; that is to say, nowhere below the level of the cell." (Jacques Monod, "From Biology to Ethics", 1969)

"A totally blind process can by definition lead to anything; it can even lead to vision itself." (Jacques Monod, "Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology", 1970)

"Among all the occurrences possible in the universe the a priori probability of any particular one of them verges upon zero. Yet the universe exists; particular events must take place in it, the probability of which (before the event) was infinitesimal. At the present time we have no legitimate grounds for either asserting or denying that life got off to but a single start on earth, and that, as a consequence, before it appeared its chances of occurring were next to nil. [...] Destiny is written concurrently with the event, not prior to it." (Jacques Monod, "Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology", 1970)

"Even today a good many distinguished minds seem unable to accept or even to understand that from a source of noise natural selection alone and unaided could have drawn all the music of the biosphere. In effect natural selection operates upon the products of chance and can feed nowhere else; but it operates in a domain of very demanding conditions, and from this domain chance is barred. It is not to chance but to these conditions that evolution owes its generally progressive course, its successive conquests, and the impression it gives of a smooth and steady unfolding." (Jacques Monod, "Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology", 1970)

"Every living being is also a fossil. Within it, all the way down to the microscopic structure of its proteins, it bears the traces if not the stigmata of its ancestry." (Jacques Monod, "Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology", 1970)

"Evolution in the biosphere is therefore a necessarily irreversible process defining a direction in time; a direction which is the same as that enjoined by the law of increasing entropy, that is to say, the second law of thermodynamics. This is far more than a mere comparison: the second law is founded upon considerations identical to those which establish the irreversibility of evolution. Indeed, it is legitimate to view the irreversibility of evolution as an expression of the second law in the biosphere." (Jacques Monod, "Chance and Necessity: An Essay on the Natural Philosophy of Modern Biology", 1970)

"A curious aspect of the theory of evolution is that everybody thinks he understands it." (Jacques Monod, "On the Molecular Theory of Evolution", 1974)

"One of the great problems of philosophy, is the relationship between the realm of knowledge and the realm of values. Knowledge is what is; values are what ought to be. I would say that all traditional philosophies up to and including Marxism have tried to derive the “ought” from the “is.” My point of view is that this is impossible, this is a farce." (Jacques Monod)

"The scientific attitude implies the postulate of objectivity - that is to say, the fundamental postulate that there is no plan; that there is no intention in the universe." (Jacques Monod)

On Axioms (1600-1699)

"It cannot be that axioms established by argumentation should avail for the discovery of new works, since the subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of argument. But axioms duly and orderly formed from particulars easily discover the way to new particulars, and thus render sciences active." (Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried." (Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"We must first, by every kind of experiment, elicit the discovery of causes and true axioms, and seek for experiments which may afford light rather than profit." (Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"Rules for Axioms. I. Not to omit any necessary principle without asking whether it is admittied, however clear and evident it may be. II. Not to demand, in axioms, any but things that are perfectly evident in themselves." (Blaise Pascal, "The Art of Persuasion", cca. 1658)

"For it is unquestionable that it is no great error to define and clearly explain things, although very clear of themselves, nor to omit to require in advance axioms which cannot be refused in the place where they are necessary; nor lastly to prove propositions that would be admitted without proof." (Blaise Pascal, "The Art of Persuasion",  cca. 1658)

"To prove all propositions, and to employ nothing for their proof but axioms fully evident of themselves, or propositions already demonstrated or admitted; Never to take advantage of the ambiguity of terms by failing mentally to substitute definitions that restrict or explain them." (Blaise Pascal, "The Art of Persuasion", cca. 1658)

"This art, which I call the art of persuading, and which, properly speaking, is simply the process of perfect methodical proofs, consists of three essential parts: of defining the terms of which we should avail ourselves by clear definitions, of proposing principles of evident axioms to prove the thing in question; and of always mentally substituting in the demonstrations the definition in the place of the thing defined." (Blaise Pascal, "The Art of Persuasion", cca. 1658)

"Mathematicians who are only mathematicians have exact minds, provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms; otherwise they are inaccurate and insufferable, for they are only right when the principles are quite clear." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Rules necessary for definitions. Not to leave any terms at all obscure or ambiguous without definition; Not to employ in definitions any but terms perfectly known or already explained. […] A few rules include all that is necessary for the perfection of the definitions, the axioms, and the demonstrations, and consequently of the entire method of the geometrical proofs of the art of persuading." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)