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Knowledge, even that which may unsettle us, it surely to be preferred to ignorance, however blissful in the short term the latter may be. All too often, however, political anxiousness favors ignorance and its apparent safety: we had better not learn about the genetics of skin color, goes the unspoken fear, lest such information be marshaled somehow by hatemongers opposed to mixing among the races.

— James D. Watson DNA: The Story of the Genetic Revolution (2003)

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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.

All James D. Watson quotes →

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.