James D. Watson Quotes

Quotes about:

• Knowing "why" (an idea) is more important than learning "what" (the fact).

  James D. Watson

  Ideas, Knowing, Important

  James D. Watson (2009). “Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science”, p.34, Vintage

  69 Copy quote

• The brain is the last and grandest biological frontier, the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe. It contains hundreds of billions of cells interlinked through trillions of connections. The brain boggles the mind.

  James D. Watson

  Cells, Brain, Mind

  Foreword for "Discovering the Brain" by Sandra Ackerman, p. iii, 1992.

  77 Copy quote

• Remember, grab you're future with both hands and mold it into what you want it to be. It's the determined, who create the life they want, while the idle sit by and watch it fade away into nothingness. The future belongs to the exceptional individuals, who can see the light of the future, at the end of the tunnel.

  James D. Watson

  Motivational, Hands, Tunnels

  62 Copy quote

• Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.

  James D. Watson

  Giving, Decision, Mind

  "What I've Learned: James Watson". Interview with John H. Richardson, www.esquire.com. October 19, 2007.

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• We're not all equal, it's simply not true. That isn't science.

  James D. Watson

  Equal

  52 Copy quote

• Nothing new that is really interesting comes without collaboration

  James D. Watson

  Education, Reading, Writing

  14 Copy quote

• Never be the brightest person in the room.

  James D. Watson

  Rooms, Persons

  James Watson: How we discovered DNA, TED talk, February 2005.

  36 Copy quote

• It's necessary to be slightly underemployed if you are to do something significant.

  James D. Watson

  Life And Love, Significant, Underemployed

  51 Copy quote

• Our goal should be to understand our differences.

  James D. Watson

  Differences, Goal, Should

  38 Copy quote

• Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.

  James D. Watson

  Religious, Science, Theory Of Evolution

  James D. Watson (1970). “Molecular Biology of the Gene”

  82 Copy quote

• There is only one science, physics: everything else is social work.

  James D. Watson

  Social Work, Physics, Social

  "Lifelines". Book by Steven Rose, 1997.

  17 Copy quote

• No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?

  James D. Watson

  Knowing, Add, May

  "Risky Genetic Fantasies". The Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2001.

  51 Copy quote

• One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural.

  James D. Watson

  Religion, Atheism, World

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• One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural, and it was a lesson that my father passed on to me, that knowledge liberates mankind from superstition. We can live our lives without the constant fear that we have offended this or that deity who must be placated by incantation or sacrifice, or that we are at the mercy of devils or the Fates. With increasing knowledge, the intellectual darkness that surrounds us is illuminated and we learn more of the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

  James D. Watson

  Father, Sacrifice, Fate

  44 Copy quote

• If scientists don't play God, who will?

  James D. Watson

  Play, Scientist, Ifs

  "Generosity by Richard Powers" by Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. January 16, 2010.

  12 Copy quote

• One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

  James D. Watson

  Success, Mother, Truth

  James D. Watson (2011). “The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

  26 Copy quote

• A clone of Einstein wouldn't be stupid, but he wouldn't necessarily be any genius, either.

  James D. Watson

  Stupid, Genius

  27 Copy quote

• Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them.

  James D. Watson

  People, Interviews, Fats

  "Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley / Geneticist's views strike many as racist, sexist" by Tom Abate, www.sfgate.com. November 13, 2000.

  41 Copy quote

• There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.

  James D. Watson

  Humanity, Intellectual, Heritage

  James D. Watson (2009). “Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science”, p.326, Vintage

  44 Copy quote

• Science moves with the spirit of an adventure characterized both by youthful arrogance and by the belief that the truth, once found, would be simple as well as pretty.

  James D. Watson

  Travel, Moving, Adventure

  70 Copy quote

• I turned against the left wing because they don't like genetics, because genetics implies that sometimes in life we fail because we have bad genes. They want all failure in life to be due to the evil system.

  James D. Watson

  Wings, Evil, Want

  "James Watson: What I've Learned" by John H. Richardson, www.esquire.com. October 19, 2007.

  41 Copy quote

• The way to do great science is to stay away from subjects that are overpopulated, and go to the frontiers.

  James D. Watson

  Way, Great Science, Subjects

  37 Copy quote

• The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand.

  James D. Watson

  Believe, Religion, Atheism

  8 Copy quote

• I never dreamed that in my lifetime my own genome would be sequenced.

  James D. Watson

  Would Be, Lifetime, My Own

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• A goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

  James D. Watson

  Stupid, Science, Numbers

  James D. Watson (2011). “The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA”, p.25, Simon and Schuster

  25 Copy quote

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