Quote of the Day (Andrei Sakharov, on Human Rights and Scientific Progress)

“International confidence, mutual understanding, disarmament, and international security are inconceivable without an open society with freedom of information, freedom of conscience, the right to publish, and the right to travel and choose the country in which one wishes to live. I am likewise convinced that freedom of conscience, together with the other civic rights, provides the basis for scientific progress and constitutes a guarantee that scientific advances will not be used to despoil mankind, providing the basis for economic and social progress, which in turn is a political guarantee for the possibility of an effective defense of social rights.”—Andrei Sakharov, “Peace, Progress, Human Rights” (Nobel Peace Prize Lecture), December 11, 1975

Andrei Sakharov, Soviet scientist turned dissident, was born on this date in 1921. Though dead for the last two decades, this towering figure continues to provide powerful witness, through the example of his life and work, to the cause of human rights worldwide.