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

James D. Watson

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" 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

" The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast. "

James D. Watson

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

James D. Watson

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

James D. Watson

" 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

" Ultimately, we'll help the people we discriminate against if we try to understand more about them; genetics will lead to a world where there is a sympathy for the underdog. "

James D. Watson

" 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

" 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. "

James D. Watson

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

James D. Watson

" 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

" I've had strong opinions probably since I was born. It makes you unpopular, but what can you do? "

James D. Watson

" Genetically modified foods are good. "

James D. Watson

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

James D. Watson

" My parents made it clear that I should never display even the slightest disrespect to individuals who had the power to let me skip a half grade or move into more challenging classes. While it was all right for me to know more about a topic than my sixth-grade teacher had ever learned, questioning her facts could only lead to trouble. "

James D. Watson

" 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

" Here at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, we have genetically rearranged various viruses and bacteria as part of our medical research. In fact, we have been able to create entirely new types of DNA molecules by splicing together the genetic information from different organisms - recombinant DNA. "

James D. Watson

" 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

" 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

" I first became aware of Charles Darwin and evolution while still a schoolboy growing up in Chicago. My father and I had a passion for bird-watching, and when the snow or the rain kept me indoors, I read his bird books and learned about evolution. "

James D. Watson

" Our goal should be to understand our differences. "

James D. Watson

" If you accept that people are the products of evolution, then you have to have an open mind to the truth. Unfair discrimination exists whether we like it or not; I wouldn't have married a gum-chewing vegetarian. "

James D. Watson

" 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

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

James D. Watson

" 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