"Modern civilization depends on science...James Smithson was well aware that knowledge should not be viewed as existing in isolated parts, but as a whole, each portion of which throws light on all the other, and that the tendency of all is to improve the human mind, and give it new sources of power and enjoyment...narrow minds think nothing of importance but their own favorite pursuit, but liberal views exclude no branch of science or literature, for they all contribute to sweeten, to adorn, and to embellish life...science is the pursuit above all which impresses us with the capacity of man for intellectual and moral progress and awakens the human intellect to aspiration for a higher condition of humanity."
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People from New York (state)InventorsPhysicists from the United StatesPrinceton University facultyMembers of the American Philosophical Society
Original Language: English
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Inscription on the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. Reported in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989) p. 313, no. 1663
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Henry
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Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797 – May 13, 1878) was an American physicist and inventor who served as the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
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