"Tout ce qui a pu se dire contre la science ne saurait faire oublier que la recherche scientifique reste, dans la degradation de tant d'ordres humains, l'un des rares domaines ou l'homme se controle, s'incline devant le raisonnable, est non bavard, non violent et pur. Moments de la recherche certes constamment interrompus par les banalites du quotidien mais qui se renouent en duree propre. Le lieu de la morale et de l'elevation ne se trouve-t-il pas desormais au laboratoire ?"

Despite all that may have been said against science, we must not forget that, amid the deterioration of so many human orders, scientific research remains one of the rare domains in which man controls himself, bows to reason, is not wordy or violent, but pure. These are moments of research, constantly interrupted by the banalities of everyday life, but moments that, conjoined, have their own duration. Is not the place of morality and loftiness henceforth the laboratory?
 

E. Levinas (Le Monde, 19/20 Mars 1978)