“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.”

You’ve never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.

Already for thirty-five years he had not stopped talking and almost nothing of fundamental value had emerged.

The way to do great science is to stay away from subjects that are overpopulated, and go to the frontiers.

Some think there is something wrong about enhancing people.

The pace of discovery is going unbelievably fast.

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?

The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father didn’t believe in God, and so he had no hang-ups about souls.

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

I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated.

No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong.

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.

If you succeed with your first dream, it helps. You know, people trust you, possibly, for the second one. They give you a chance to play out your second one.

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

Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.

The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don’t have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand.

If I had been married earlier in life, I wouldn’t have seen the double helix. I would have been taking care of the kids on Saturday. On the other hand, I was lonely a lot of the time.

Not biology, but ignorance of ourselves, has been the key to our powerlessness

The origins of violence against women by men are not biological. If that were the case, it would exist in every culture. And it doesn’t exist in every culture.

You have to understand your own personal DNA. Don’t do things because I do them or Steve Jobs or Mark Cuban tried it. You need to know your personal brand and stay true to it.

Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.

Your biography becomes your biology. This biography includes the totality of your choices, the things you feed your body – you thoughts, your actions, your food – the thing you feed your life.

Being of service is not an option, it is a biological necessity. Every kind of action we do for someone is a reanimation of our own life force – and of the other person’s.

Common stock investors can make money by predicting the outcomes of practice evolution. You can’t derive this by fundamental analysis – you must think biologically.

My mother is a realist, and she’s had biological and adoptive children, and she said it’s no different: No matter what, they’re putting a stranger into your arms. You don’t know them yet.