131 Quotes by James D. Watson

Every time you understand something, religion becomes less likely. Only with the discovery of the double helix and the ensuing genetic revolution have we had grounds for thinking that the powers held traditionally to be the exclusive property of the gods might one day be ours. . . .

[When asked by a student if he believes in any gods]Oh, no. Absolutely not... The biggest advantage to believing in God is you don't have to understand anything, no physics, no biology. I wanted to understand.

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.

People say we are playing God. My answer is: If we don't play God, who will?

I’ve had strong opinions probably since I was born. It makes you unpopular, but what can you do?

[As a young man ] I came to the conclusion that the church was just a bunch of fascists that supported Franco. I stopped going on Sunday mornings and watched the birds with my father instead.

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.

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

Yo tengo la intuición de que los humanos somos sencillamente grandes simios con unos cuantos interruptores genéticos exclusivos -y especiales-.