Top 80 Quotes & Sayings by Carl Hart

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American educator Carl Hart.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
Carl Hart

Carl L. Hart is an American psychologist and neuroscientist, working as the Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology at Columbia University. Hart is known for his research on drug abuse and drug addiction, his advocacy for the decriminalization of recreational drugs, and his recreational use of drugs like heroin. Hart is one of the first tenured African American professors of sciences at Columbia University.

When I got out of the military, I finished up my education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and I had some mentors who said, 'You got what it takes. You should consider going to graduate school, getting a Ph.D. in neuroscience.' I didn't think I had what it took until somebody who had a Ph.D. told me I had what it takes.
If politicians did care about their constituents, they would work harder to seek out people like me. They don't.
I had a grandmother who was really strong, who doted on me, who wanted to make sure that I didn't go off the beaten path, although I did. — © Carl Hart
I had a grandmother who was really strong, who doted on me, who wanted to make sure that I didn't go off the beaten path, although I did.
I think people are curious at some level, and they want to alter their current state of being. I mean, that could be from curiosity, that could be from stress, that can be from some other sort of ailments or problem that they are experiencing or could just be from boredom, but humans have always attempted to alter their consciousness.
The notion that scientists are dispassionate - first of all, that's wrong. Scientists are extremely passionate.
I grew up in the hood in Miami in a poor neighborhood.
Drug reformers get seduced by politicians who co-opt our language but who make no meaningful change. And when we don't hold politicians accountable, we contribute to harm.
Teaching university students affords me the opportunity to demonstrate to young adults that they don't have to be perfect to make contributions to their country.
The strange proposition that black intellectuals - regardless of their training - are 'race experts' mainly because they are black is naive and potentially dangerous.
It takes some courage to say you were wrong.
Too often, ill-informed rhetoric has led to emotional hysteria that obfuscates solid evidence regarding the real problems faced by poor people and, in overwhelmingly great proportions, by black people.
I had to go to England to really learn about American racism in a way that corroborated my reality. That was critical.
When we make decisions based on factors other than the available empirical evidence, we are less than objective, which means we are no longer acting as scientists.
Perhaps, for once, we should try interventions that are informed by science and proven to work.
I went to college in the Air Force, and I went to college at the University of Maryland, who had college campuses on Air Force bases. — © Carl Hart
I went to college in the Air Force, and I went to college at the University of Maryland, who had college campuses on Air Force bases.
If we stay focused on data and the real issues, we can tailor our inventions to enhance public health and safety while decreasing the likelihood of racial discrimination.
The listening community has the obligation of distinguishing informed opinion from tweets.
Disregard belief systems that aren't based on empirical studies.
Politicians move when the public requires them to move.
My kids are really into social justice.
When patients reject official advice and proved medicine, they become more susceptible to quackery.
In the hood, you have a problem with somebody, you have to deal with it. The outcome is pretty immediate.
I am committed to the people who are sick and tired of seeing their tax dollars being used to fund unethical people and corporations.
It turns out that the term 'diversity' can be anything from black faculty to military veterans. Well, I am both, but have yet to be subjected to discrimination because I'm a veteran.
As a parent, a scientist, and educator, what I know is that it's always better to provide the education that will help keep my children - all people - safe, even if I don't want them to engage in the behavior.
You have to be open-minded, and you have to be critical, and you have to let go of your predispositions about what you've been told that doesn't have foundations in evidence.
I am certain that my white colleagues, when faced with an emergency situation, wouldn't think twice about calling the police. This, however, may not be the case for their black and Latino students.
It's not a crime to make a mistake; in fact, it's human. I certainly have made mistakes.
I have a hard time arguing with stupid people.
If we were going to look at how pharmalogical drugs influence crime, we should probably look at alcohol.
I went into the military because I didn't get a scholarship, a basketball scholarship I thought that I would get.
We need better public education and more realistic education.
My research has taught me many important lessons, but perhaps none more important than this: drug effects, like semesters, are predictable; police interactions with black people are not.
Trump has been - has shown himself to be the most ignorant president that we've ever had. He has shown himself to be the one that disregards law more so than any other president we've had.
If you are funding researchers to look primarily for pathology, not surprisingly, that is what they are going to find and report on.
One of the things we know about people is that people are not very courageous in general.
Skills that are employable or marketable, education, having a stake or meaningful role in society, not being marginalized - all of those things are very important.
The way we have been thinking about brain science is that people show you pretty pictures, pretty images, and you think that that tells you something about how they behave. It doesn't.
Number one in high school, when I was sort of entrenched in the street life, if you will, the major thing that kept me plugged in the mainstream was athletics. I played basketball throughout high school. I also played football, but I played basketball throughout high school.
You don't have money, you can't do science. But that's part of the price that I pay. — © Carl Hart
You don't have money, you can't do science. But that's part of the price that I pay.
All of my childhood, we were on welfare. My mom received Aid for Families with Dependent Children - welfare. Without that, we wouldn't have had subsidized housing. Most of my childhood, we had a two-bedroom apartment, but eventually we got into the projects, where we had four bedrooms. That was great.
When you go to jail, you are under the supervision of the state. You are housed with people who are criminals, so that becomes the expectation. People learn to become better criminals in jail and prison.
I did most of my Ph.D. in Washington. They used to bring black kids through the lab for tours, and I was one of the few black researchers.
It is always a good time when I visit the 'Melissa Harris Perry Show' on MSNBC.
In the mainstream, I'm suspect because I'm black. I have dreadlocks, I have a goatee. I mean, I'm just suspect. In my classroom and at Columbia, I'm not as suspect because it's clear I know what I'm doing, but I am still suspect.
If drugs are bad, any respectable society should do something to deal with them.
I am a drug expert and the father of 3 black males.
I strongly discourage any intellectuals, regardless of race, from speaking on matters for which they have limited or no expertise.
All children will do things that you may not want them to. That's part of parenting.
I'm the only tenured black faculty in the sciences at Columbia, in the middle of Harlem. — © Carl Hart
I'm the only tenured black faculty in the sciences at Columbia, in the middle of Harlem.
Researchers, treatment providers - we all have a stake in the drug hysteria game.
Sleep is probably the most important biological function. If you don't get enough sleep, you can get psychiatric illnesses and all types of different illnesses.
It is my mission to put sensible and evidence-based information above politics and exaggeration.
Drug reformers need to be hyper-vigilant. I understand that when you've been oppressed so long, so thirsty for truth, that when someone comes along and gives you a sip of water, you think that they're the savior. But in that water there may be cyanide.
Most of the stuff that parades as drug education in this country is just rubbish with no foundation in evidence.
My critique of how we deal with drugs in society is just that - that we use these anecdotes to apply to everyone and the anecdotes are not representative.
We should decriminalize all drugs. The assumptions on which our drug policies are based are flawed.
The way we're currently educating people about heroin is to say that heroin is so awful. Heroin is not so much the problem. It's when you combine it. It's hard to die from heroin alone.
One of the things that has happened is that our drug laws have been institutionalized now. If you want to say that somebody's a bad person in a movie or in a television show or something about that, you say they sell drugs or they use drugs.
Our ability to study the brain has been limited because of our tools and our tools have only allowed us to look at one neurotransmitter and we haven't looked so much into co-localization and co-release of transmitters. Our thinking is hampered by our tools.
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