This might be a slightly random, but I was trying to authenticate a quote from Vonnegut and when I looked it up, it was being juxtaposed with this one from Dickens' Hard Times.
Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts
alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else. And root out everything else. You
can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever
be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own
children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to
Facts, sir! — Charles Dickens, Hard Times, (1854)
Vonnegut's Quote?
“A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find these lessons irrelevant in the 20th century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness. Science has nothing to do with it.” – Kurt Vonnegut
As an Americanist, I may be partial - but all things being equal I'd give this round to Vonnegut. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt the pairing of the two quotes by this website was unfair. First of all, I don't think they were talking about the same thing really. And secondly (and more importantly) I think that Dickens (based on everything I've read thus far, especially A Christmas Carol) would have agreed with Vonnegut wholeheartedly.
Feel free to weigh in, or not...
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