“Every animal leaves traces of what he was. Man alone leaves traces of what he created.”

— Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, 1973

About Jacob Bronowski

1908 – 1974

Polish-British mathematician and science writer, creator of the television series "The Ascent of Man".

“What makes each human, what makes them universal, is the stamp of the creative mind.”

“Progress is the exploration of our own error.”

“Science is not a special sense. It is as wide as the literal meaning of its name: knowledge.”

“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

“Beauty is the mark God sets upon virtue.”

“If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being.”

“The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness.”

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.”