Let us throw away this kind of intellectual arrogance and not again praise everything we produced as making us the enlightened race. Let us be proud of the fact that modern science was born only in Europe but let us not take this as an eternal patent.
他在一九六一年牛津科學史研討會的論文中指出：…… 且讓我們拋開那種知性的驕傲，不再吹噓什麼我們是生來就有智慧的民族；且讓我們以現代科學只誕生於歐洲為榮，但不要藉此想獲得永久的專利權。