Benjamin Franklin combined better than anyone else the qualities of a great scientist and a great rebel. As a scientist, without formal education or inherited wealth, he beat the learned aristocrats of Europe at their own game.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. ix

Franklin’s triumph as a rebel resulted from the fact that his rebellion was not impulsive but was carefully thought out over many years.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. ix

Franklin became a rebel only when he judged the time to be ripe and the costs to be acceptable. As a rebel he remained a conservative, aiming not to destroy but to preserve as much as possible of the established order of society….The rebellion that Franklin embodied was a thoughtful rebellion, driven by reason and calculation more than by passion and hatred.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. x

There is no such thing as a unique scientific vision, any more than there is a unique poetic vision. Science is a mosaic of partial and conflicting visions. But there is one common element in these visions. The common element is rebellion against the restrictions imposed by the locally prevailing culture, Western or Eastern as the case may be.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. 3

Science is an alliance of free spirits in all cultures rebelling against the local tyranny that each culture imposes on its children.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. 4

If science ceases to be a rebellion against authority, then it does not deserve the talents of our brightest children.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. 7

We should try to introduce our children to science today as a rebellion against poverty and ugliness and militarism and economic injustice.

The Scientist as Rebel, p. 7

If we try to squeeze science into a single philosophical viewpoint such as reductionism, we are like Procrustes chopping off the feet of his guests when they do not fit onto his bed. Science flourishes best when it uses freely all the tools at hand, unconstrained by preconceived notions of what science ought to be. Every time we introduce a new tool, it always leads to new and unexpected discoveries, because Nature’s imaginations is richer than ours.”

The Scientist as Rebel, p. 17-8