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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.

— James D. Watson Foreword for Discovering the Brain (1992)

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More quotes by James D. Watson

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

Lifelines (1997)

I just can’t sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it’s nonsense.

I find such a moralistic response to be profoundly immoral.

DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution (2003)

The thought that some people are innately wicked disturbs me.

To question genetic intelligence is not racism (2007)

Science Ph.D. students have effectively become serfs.

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James D. Watson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.