83 Quotes by Barry Commoner

Technologists practice faith too; ‘Faith that problems have solutions before having the knowledge to solve them.’

Environmental quality was drastically improved while economic activity grew by the simple expedient of removing lead from gasoline – which prevented it from entering the environment.

In certain ways, I’m not very different than I was when I was a teenager.

My entry into the environmental arena was through the issue that so dramatically – and destructively – demonstrates the link between science and social action: nuclear weapons.

All of the clean technologies are known, it’s a question of simply applying them.

By adopting the control strategy, the nation’s environmental program has created a built-in antagonism between environmental quality and economic growth.

I see no reason to have my shirts ironed. It’s irrational.

The AEC scientists were so narrowly focused on arming the United States for nuclear war that they failed to perceive facts – even widely known ones – that were outside their limited field of vision.

After all, despite the economic advantage to firms that employed child labor, it was in the social interest, as a national policy, to abolish it – removing that advantage for all firms.