Jacques Monod
A molecular biologist who, with François Jacob, elucidated the mechanisms of gene regulation, particularly the operon model.
Most quoted
"Man must at last wake out of his millenary dream; and in doing so, wake to his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, just as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his sufferings or his crimes."
— from Chance and Necessity, 1970
"Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution: this central concept of modern biology is no longer one among other possible or even conceivable hypotheses. It is today the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one compatible with observed and tested fact."
— from Chance and Necessity, 1970
"And man must at last wake out of his millenary dream and discover his total solitude, his fundamental isolation. He must realize that, like a gypsy, he lives on the boundary of an alien world; a world that is deaf to his music, and as indifferent to his hopes as it is to his suffering or his crimes."
— from Chance and Necessity, 1970
All quotes by Jacques Monod (353)
The dream of every cell is to become two cells.
The cell is not a bag of enzymes; it is a highly organized, cybernetic micro-universe.
We are alone, like gypsies on the edge of an alien universe. A universe that is deaf to our music, indifferent to our hopes, our sufferings, and our crimes.
The idea of a 'natural law' governing the evolution of life is a contradiction in terms. Evolution is the very negation of law.
Man's destiny is nowhere spelled out, nor is his duty. The kingdom above or the darkness below: it is for him to choose.
The only possible ethical position consistent with the scientific worldview is one of 'knowledge ethics'—an ethics of knowledge.
To accept the postulate of objectivity is to deny any source of knowledge other than the systematic testing and logical interpretation of experience.
The miracle of life is not its purpose, but its existence as a chemical machine of staggering complexity arising from chance and necessity.
The history of life is a vast lottery where the winning numbers are survival and reproduction.
In science, self-satisfaction is death. Personal self-satisfaction is the death of the scientist. Collective self-satisfaction is the death of the research.
The cell is a chemical factory of a complexity and efficiency that dwarfs any human industrial plant.
The boundary between the living and the non-living is not a sharp line, but a gradual transition of increasing molecular complexity and autonomy.
An enzyme is not a 'living' molecule; it is a molecular tool, a catalyst shaped by evolution.
The concept of 'teleonomy'—the appearance of purposefulness in living beings—is essential to biology, but it is an illusion produced by natural selection.
The genome is a message written in a four-letter alphabet, copied with incredible fidelity over billions of years, yet mutable enough to allow for all of evolution.
The randomness of mutations is the ultimate source of creativity in the living world.
There is no 'law of progress' in evolution. There is only adaptation to changing environments.
The ethical system built into the structure of our brains by evolution is obsolete in the face of modern scientific knowledge and technological power.
The search for truth is the highest human activity, even if the truth is cold and indifferent.
The modern mind, shaped by science, is a stranger in the world of traditional values.
Contemporaries of Jacques Monod
Other Biologys born within 50 years of Jacques Monod (1910–1976).