Joshua Lederberg famous quotes

Being successful at a very young age gave me the confidence and the capability to try out other things.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Successful #Age #Trying

If we have isolated individuals able to inflict enormous harm, imagine what a single lunatic can do with a nuclear weapon. I think the whole base of civil society is at risk.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Thinking #Risk #Nuclear

I get curious about new things. My real strength is going into a field that has not been investigated before, and finding new approaches to it.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Real #Fields #Curious

I don't believe anybody can really grasp everything that's even in one textbook.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Believe #Textbooks

I did get a very fine education, and not just in science. It took some pressure on the part of my elders to convince me that I really should take an interest in humanities.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Humanity #Pressure #Should

I believe I am a person with unusual talents. I think I'd be a liar or stupid if I were to deny that.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Liars #Stupid #Believe

I certainly saw science as a kind of calling, and one with as much legitimacy as a religious calling.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Religious #Calling #Saws

A Swedish newspaper reporter called and said, You've been awarded the Prize. I was quite sure it was a practical joke.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Newspapers #Newspaper Reporters #Said

By the time I was 12 or 13, I was studying biochemistry textbooks.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Textbooks #Study #Biochemistry

Although I am a public figure, I'm still a little shy. I don't think my own personality is important. I prefer to keep some small dosage of privacy.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Thinking #Personality #Important

Everybody has to learn for the first time.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Firsts #First Time

The central moral issue of science is that we do not have a science of peace and hardly know where to begin in building one.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Issues #Politics #Moral

I wish I had a talent for dropping things as well as taking on new ones. It gets to be quite a clutter after a while.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Wish #Talent #Dropping

The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on the planet is the virus.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Men #Viruses #Dominance

As soon as you go into any biological process in any real detail, you discover it's open-ended in terms of what needs to be found out about it.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Real #Details #Needs

I'm not easily inhibited by the fact that I don't know something about a subject. It doesn't stop me from dabbling in it.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Facts #Subjects

If it takes you 20 or 25 years to establish yourself in one field, you really ought to be careful not to stray too far.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Years #Fields #Be Careful

If lifespan jumps by 30 or 40 years, that has enormous implications.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Years #Enormous

If you wanted to dissect the structure of living cells, genetic analysis was an extremely powerful method, so my interest turned to that.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Powerful #Cells #Analysis

My ambitions were already very clearly fixed by the time I was 6 or 7.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Ambition #Fixed #My Ambition

I started on the use of the Internet for scientific communication. Our research group was one of the very first to make really systematic use of it as a way of managing research projects.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Communication #Groups #Use

All of civility depends on being able to contain the rage of individuals.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Able #Rage #Civility

I'd like to put in a vote for the intrinsic fascination of science.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Fascination #Vote

I think we have to believe we are here for some purpose, and I know there are many cynics who will deny it, but they don't live as if they deny it.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Believe #Thinking #Purpose

To have the recognition of your colleagues is great. The public attention is a mixed blessing.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Blessing #Attention #Rewards

I hope I've lived a life of science whose style will encourage younger people.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Encouragement #People #Style

Try hard to find out what you're good at and what your passions are, and where the two converge, and build your life around that.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Passion #Two #Hard Life

When I was in high school, I became interested in cytochemistry: chemical analysis under the microscope, and trying to understand the composition of cells.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#School #Cells #Trying

I got my Nobel Prize for my lab work.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Labs #Nobel #Prize

So many of the things I've predicted were technologies that were just sitting right in front of us.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Technology #Sitting

I was a bad practicing physician because I was never sure of the diagnosis or of the treatment.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Ignorance #Physicians #Diagnosis

I have many shortcomings. I feel very lucky to have been able to have what I've had.
-- Joshua Lederberg

#Lucky #Able #Feels