James D. Watson Quotes - Page 2

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• People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great.

  James D. Watson

  Girl, Thinking, People

  "Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer" by Shaoni Bhattacharya, www.newscientist.com. February 28, 2003.

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• Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely. Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours. 5

  James D. Watson

  God, Thinking, Discovery

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• The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father didn't believe in God, and so he had no hang-ups about souls.

  James D. Watson

  Father, Believe, Soul

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• DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.

  James D. Watson

  Dna, Gold, Gold Rush

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• The brain, is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.

  James D. Watson

  Brain, Complexes, Universe

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• I don't think we are here for anything. We're just products of evolution. You can say, "Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don't think there's a purpose." But I'm anticipating a good lunch.

  James D. Watson

  Thinking, Lunch, Mindfulness

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• Science that leads over the horizon depends on gathering the best minds and enabling them to do what the best minds naturally seek to do: pursue the most thrilling questions of the time.

  James D. Watson

  Mind, Gathering, Horizon

  James D. Watson (2007). “Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science”, p.324, OUP Oxford

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• I'm basically a libertarian. I don't want to restrict anyone from doing anything unless it's going to harm me. I don't want [to] pass a law stopping someone from smoking. It's just too dangerous. You lose the concept of a free society. Since we are genetically so diverse and our brains are so different, we're going to have different aspirations.

  James D. Watson

  Law, Smoking, Brain

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• Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.

  James D. Watson

  Thinking, Break Through, Preoccupation

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• The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease.

  James D. Watson

  Essence, Bipolar, Levels

  "Watson retires". Prof. James D. Watson's statement on blacks and whites just before his retirement from the post of Chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, www.theguardian.com. October 25, 2007.

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• My heroes were never scientists. They were Graham Greene and Christopher Isherwood, you know, good writers.

  James D. Watson

  Hero, Scientist, Good Writers

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• Ever since we achieved a breakthrough in the area of recombinant DNA in 1973, left-wing nuts and environmental kooks have been screaming that we will create some kind of Frankenstein bug or Andromeda Strain that will destroy us all.

  James D. Watson

  Dna, Nuts, Wings

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• Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders. Instead, its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles.

  James D. Watson

  Play, Personality, Roles

  James D. Watson (2011). “The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

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• I have a son, who is a... not an ordinary form of schizophrenia, but clearly, cannot take care of himself. And the great fear of then, of all parents is, when the parents die, who takes care of your child? And the answer is: they become homeless.

  James D. Watson

  Children, Son, Parent

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• I recently went to my staircase at Clare College, Cambridge and there were women there! There have been a lot of convincing studies recently about the loss of productivity in the Western male. It may be that entertainment culture now is so engaging that it keeps people satisfied. We didn't have that. Science was much more fun than listening to the radio. When you are 16 or 17 and in that inherently semi-lonely period when you are deciding whether to be an intellectual, many now don't bother.

  James D. Watson

  Lonely, Fun, Science

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• At lunch Francis [Crick] winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.

  James D. Watson

  Distance, Science, Discovery

  James D. Watson, Alexander Gann, Jan Witkowski (2012). “The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

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• Already for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged.

  James D. Watson

  Science, Talking, Years

  James D. Watson (2011). “The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

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• Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.

  James D. Watson

  Science, Giving, Together

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• [As a young man ] I came to the conclusion that the church was just a bunch of fascists that supported Franco. I stopped going on Sunday mornings and watched the birds with my father instead.

  James D. Watson

  Morning, Father, Sunday

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• For all my life, America was the place to be. And we somehow continue to be the place where there are real opportunities to change the world for the better.

  James D. Watson

  Real, 4th Of July, Opportunity

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

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• Moving forward will not be for the faint of heart. But if the next century witnesses failure, let it be because our science is not yet up to the job, not because we don't have the courage to make less random the sometimes most unfair courses of human evolution.

  James D. Watson

  Jobs, Moving, Heart

  James D. Watson (2001). “A Passion for DNA: Genes, Genomes, and Society”, p.229, OUP Oxford

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• If I had been married earlier in life, I wouldn't have seen the double helix. I would have been taking care of the kids on Saturday. On the other hand, I was lonely a lot of the time.

  James D. Watson

  Lonely, Kids, Hands

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• If you succeed with your first dream, it helps. You know, people trust you, possibly, for the second one. They give you a chance to play out your second one.

  James D. Watson

  Dream, Play, People

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• I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated.

  James D. Watson

  Science, Thinking, Years

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• Racists have often used pseudoscience to justify their socially damaging views; watch these films to see how science, by replacing ignorance with knowledge, can undo that damage.

  James D. Watson

  Ignorance, Views, Damage

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