Linus Pauling — "I am a scientist, and I believe in the scientific method. But I also believe tha…"
I am a scientist, and I believe in the scientific method. But I also believe that there are things that science cannot explain.
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More from Linus Pauling
"I have been interested in vitamins for a long time, and I have taken large doses of vitamin C for many years."
"Orthomolecular medicine is the preservation of good health and the treatment of disease by varying the concentrations of substances normally present in the body."
"Well David, I have a lot of ideas and throw away the bad ones."
"I was able to solve this problem because I don't have a computer. I know what I am doing every step, and the steps go slowly enough that I can think."
"I am an optimist. I believe that the human race will solve its problems."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Being a scientist means trusting the scientific method as the best tool for understanding the natural world. But intellectual honesty demands acknowledging that science has boundaries — questions of consciousness, meaning, morality, or subjective experience may not yield to empirical testing. True rigor includes recognizing what your tools can and cannot measure. Science explains mechanisms; it may not explain everything that matters to human life.
Relevance to Linus Pauling
Pauling won two Nobel Prizes — Chemistry in 1954 for revolutionizing understanding of chemical bonds, and Peace in 1962 for opposing nuclear weapons testing. His anti-nuclear activism drew on science but was ultimately driven by moral conviction science alone couldn't supply. His controversial vitamin C advocacy also showed him pushing beyond consensus. He consistently acted as though some truths — about human life and dignity — exceeded what experiments could settle.
The era
Pauling's peak years coincided with the Cold War and the atomic age, when science was simultaneously celebrated as humanity's great hope and feared as its potential destroyer. The 1950s–60s saw the space race, DNA's discovery, and nuclear arsenals growing. Scientists faced intense pressure to serve state power or resist it. Questions about what science could — and couldn't — justify morally became urgent after physics had already produced Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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