James D. Watson

Never be the brightest person in the room. … We're all imperfect.

James Watson: How we discovered DNA, TED talk (February 2005), 2005

The law has always had difficulty assimilating the implications, if not the very idea, of scientific evidence. Even the most intelligent lawyers, judges, and juries have customarily found it difficult to understand at first.

Chapter 11, “Genetic Fingerprinting: DNA’s Day in Court” (p. 300), 2003

This remarkable feat merely reaffirms what most of us in molecular biology have long known to be the truth: the essence of life is complicated chemistry and nothing more.

Chapter 9, “Reading Genomes: Evolution in Action” (p. 242), 2003

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

As quoted in "Stupidity should be cured, says DNA discoverer", by Shaoni Bhattacharya, New Scientist (28 February 2003)., 2003

The tendency is to focus on the worst-case scenario and to shy away from potentially controversial science; it is time, I think, we looked instead at the benefits.

Chapter 13, “Who We Are: Nature vs. Nurture” (p. 372), 2003

Sure enough, the notion of decoding their personal DNA appealed to more than a few well-off individuals, even if it amounted to the scientific equivalent of purchasing a vanity license plate.

Chapter 8, “Personal Genetics: The First of the Rest of Us” (p. 205), 2003

Khan analyzed the data and was relieved to find that his son’s DNA was “pretty boring.” In the brave new world of personal genomics, “boring” is the new “great.”

Chapter 8, “Personal Genetics: The First of the Rest of Us” (p. 216), 2003

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?

"Risky Genetic Fantasies" in The Los Angeles Times (29 July 2001), p. M4, 2001

Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them.

As quoted in "Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley", by Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle (13 November 2000), 2000

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.

"All for the Good: Why genetic engineering must soldier on" TIME magazine, Vol. 153, No. 1 (11 January 1999), 1999

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

As quoted in Lifelines (1997) by Steven Rose, 1997

Be sure you have someone up your sleeve who will save you when you find yourself in deep s—.

1993

To succeed in science, you have to avoid dumb people (here I was still following Luria's example). Now that might sound inexcusably flip, but the fact is that you must always turn to people who are brighter than yourself.

1993

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.

Foreword for Discovering the Brain (1992) by Sandra Ackerman, p. iii; often paraphrased: "The brain is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.", 1992

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.

1968