It takes a trained and discerning researcher to keep the goal in sight, and to detect evidence of the creeping progress toward it.

[Intellectual courage is] the quality that allows one to believe in one's judgement in the face of disappointment and widespread skepticism. Intellectual courage is even rarer than physical courage.

I knew, however, that it would cost ten times what I had available in order to build a molecular beam machine. I decided to follow a byway, rather than the highway. It is a procedure I have subsequently recommended to beginning scientists in this country, where research strategy is best modelled on that used by Wolfe at the Plains of Abraham.

Today, Academies of Science use their influence around the world in support of human rights.

Human dignity is better served by embracing knowledge.

Discoveries that are anticipated are seldom the most valuable. ... It's the scientist free to pilot his vessel across hidden shoals into open seas who gives the best value.

Science never gives up searching for truth, since it never claims to have achieved it.