Quotes By James D. Watson

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

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.

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.

Our goal should be to understand our differences.

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.

I am thrilled to see my genome.

Biology has at least 50 more interesting years.

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

To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologise unreservedly.

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

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.

The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast.

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

I have been much blessed.

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

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

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.

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

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

You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.

I wanted to see if I could write a good book.

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.

Some think there is something wrong about enhancing people.

There are many people of color who are very talented.