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Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact).

James Watson

Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.
JAMES WATSON

Break Excitement Occupation Science Terrible Thinking
Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely.
JAMES WATSON

Religion Time Understand
I have been much blessed.
JAMES WATSON

Blessing Myself
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 WATSON

Adventure Beautiful Character Science Simplicity Spirit Truth
There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.
JAMES WATSON

Enough Evolution Humanity Identity Intellectual Reason Reservation Separation
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.
JAMES WATSON

Dreams Help People Play Success Trust
There is only one science, physics: everything else is social work.
JAMES WATSON

Physics Science Social Work
Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders. Instead, its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles.
JAMES WATSON

Culture Human Imagination Logic Personality Role Science Tradition
For all my life, America was the place to be. And we somehow continue to be the place where there are real opportunities to change the world for the better.
JAMES WATSON

Better Change Life Opportunity Place Reality World
No good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong.
JAMES WATSON

Goodness Model Responsibility Wrong
Science that leads over the horizon depends on gathering the best minds and enabling them to do what the best minds naturally seek to do: pursue the most thrilling questions of the time.
JAMES WATSON

Best Mindset Natural Question Science Time
Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.
JAMES WATSON

Acceptance Evolution Principle Reason Religious Theory
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?
JAMES WATSON

Better Creation Human Improvement Technology
You’ve never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.
JAMES WATSON

Love Patience Yourself
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 WATSON

Competition Research Togetherness Virtual Young
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 WATSON

Mindset Oneself Popular Science Stupidity Success Support

Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact).

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Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact).

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