At lunch Francis [Crick] winged into the Eagle to tell everyone within hearing distance that we had found the secret of life.

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.

Biology has at least 50 more interesting years.

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.

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

Ever since we achieved a breakthrough in the area of recombinant DNA in 1973, left-wing nuts and environmental kooks have been screaming that we will create some kind of Frankenstein bug or Andromeda Strain that will destroy us all.

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