15 James D. Watson Quotes

James D. Watson quotes

1. 'If we don't play god, who will?'

2. '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?'

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

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

2. Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favour research using embryonic stem cells and yet politicians continue to pander to the outspoken religious minority that is hampering efforts to develop this potentially valuable technology.

3. You move forward through knowledge. You prevail through knowledge. I love the word 'prevail.' Prevail!

4. As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all.

5. 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.

6. No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong.

7. 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.

8. If we could honestly promise young couples that we knew how to give them offspring with superior character, why should we assume they would decline? Common sense tells us that if scientists find ways to greatly improve human capabilities, there will no stopping the public from happily seizing them.

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

10. 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.

11. I wish there would be more movies about scientists.

12. I don't want 100 different cures of cancer. I want, you know, give me five. So if you had, you know, five medicines, you could do away with 90 percent of cancer. That's sort of my objective. I think we're going to do it.