“In the fields of technology or medicine, backwardness, dilettantism and obscurantism meet with the contempt they deserve; in the field of sociology, they invariably claim to embody freedom of scientific inquiry. Those for whom theory is merely an intellectual pastime easily move from one revelation to another or, what is more common, content themselves with a hash made of bits and pieces of all revelations. Immeasurably more exa cting, disciplined, and stable is he for whom theory is a guide of action. The drawing-room skeptic may with impunity make fun of medicine. The surgeon, however, cannot function in an atmosphere of scientific hesitation." —L.T. Mentioning the person behind the quote above might provoke prejudice more than thinking.
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51