It is extraordinary the extent to which Darwin’s insights not only changed his contemporaries’ view of the world but also continue to be a source of great intellectual stimulation for scientists and nonscientists alike. James D. Watson Read Quote
By the age of 11, I was no longer going to Sunday Mass, and going on birdwatching walks with my father. So early on, I heard of Charles Darwin. I guess, you know, he was the big hero. And, you know, you understand life as it now exists through evolution. James D. Watson Read Quote
Genes, Girls, and Gamow’ was an attempt, even more than ‘The Double Helix,’ to mix science with one’s personal life. With ‘The Double Helix,’ no one had done it before, but I thought I’d try. James D. Watson Read Quote
We should govern our actions by assuming that people are more good than bad. Whereas, most of our social policies dictate that people are more bad than good. That you know if you do something, it’ll be seized by the rich to exploit the poor. James D. Watson Read Quote
If you go into science, I think you better go in with a dream that maybe you, too, will get a Nobel Prize. It’s not that I went in and I thought I was very bright and I was going to get one, but I’ll confess, you know, I knew what it was. James D. Watson Read Quote
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 Read Quote
I have an odd theory on happiness, and it bothers people. My general theory is that happiness is a reward for an animal doing what it should be doing. So if a horse runs, it feels happy. Or if you are too thin, you can’t be happy, because evolution wants you to be tense and anxious, trying to wake up in the morning looking for food. James D. Watson Read Quote
Great wealth could make an enormous difference over the next decade if they sensibly support the scientific elite. Just the elite. Because the elite makes most of the progress. You should worry about people who produce really novel inventions, not pedantic hacks. James D. Watson Read Quote
I started doing science when I was effectively 20, a graduate student of Salvador Luria at Indiana University. And that was – you know, it took me about two years, you know, being a graduate student with Luria deciding I wanted to find the structure of DNA; that is, DNA was going to be my objective. James D. Watson Read Quote
My whole life has been basically trying to find intelligent students or, you know, highly motivated students and giving them an opportunity to do good science. James D. Watson Read Quote
