16 Quotes by James Burke

On why 300 years separates the first use of glass lenses in spectacles and their use in a telescope: “In many cases there are times when an invention is technologically possible – and in which it may indeed appear necessary, as the telescope may have – but without a market the idea will not sell, and in the absence of the technical and social infrastructure to support it, the invention will not survive.

Why should we look to the past in order to prepare for the future? Because there is nowhere else to look.

Scientists are the true driving force of civilization.

Last but not least, knowledge mapping's contextualizing capability facilitates community-wide consensual innovation assessment.

When you read a book, you hold another's mind in your hands.

Now, too many ships were being lost like that, ... because they were lost, like that. But with the highly profitable American colonies waiting to be exploited, this was just the time for investors to be sinking their money into transatlantic transportation that wasn't sinking. So a very large prize was offered for anybody who could come up with safer ways of getting places. And back. In 1765 a clockmaker named John Harrison provided a timely solution.

From the standpoint of Ben, obviously Ben did what he did ... but we believe there were errors in both the evidence and the legal instructions to the jury, ... We respect the jury's findings, but feel the decision was flawed.

I think it's pretty cutting edge. San Bernardino County in California visited us about it. I have had calls from Holland and South Africa.

We used beach access as a metaphor for this issue. People for the most part can stroll around and use the beach. We think the preserves should have the same thing.