"No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude"
About this Quote
The line about language is where the power dynamics show. “English is becoming increasingly international” reads like a neutral observation, but it carries the quiet triumph of a lingua franca that happens to be the operating system of global finance, diplomacy, and media. It’s globalization described from the cockpit, not the cabin. “Language would be helpful” lands almost as a shrug, because if English is the default, multilingualism becomes optional enrichment rather than a requirement to meet others on their terms.
Then comes travel and the “global attitude,” the most culturally loaded phrase here. “Global” can mean curiosity; it can also mean comfort with borderless markets, flexible labor, and the idea that local frictions are just inefficiencies to be managed. Coming from a publisher whose empire spans continents and regulatory regimes, this isn’t a call to cosmopolitan empathy so much as a mandate for mobility and adaptation: learn the tools, speak the dominant code, move fast, think big. It’s education as competitive positioning, not civic formation.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Murdoch, Rupert. (2026, January 18). No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-ones-going-to-be-able-to-operate-without-a-8921/
Chicago Style
Murdoch, Rupert. "No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-ones-going-to-be-able-to-operate-without-a-8921/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"No one's going to be able to operate without a grounding in the basic sciences. Language would be helpful, although English is becoming increasingly international. And travel. You have to have a global attitude." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-ones-going-to-be-able-to-operate-without-a-8921/. Accessed 7 Feb. 2026.



