William Shockley famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Frequently, I have been asked if an experiment I have planned is pure or applied science; to me it is more important to know if the experiment will yield new and probably enduring knowledge about nature. If it is likely to yield such knowledge, it is, in my opinion, good fundamental research; and this is more important than whether the motivation is purely aesthetic satisfaction on the part of the experimenter on the one hand or the improvement of the stability of a high-power transistor on the other.
-- William Shockley

#Motivation #Knowledge #Hands
Regret is unnecessary. Think before you act.
-- William Shockley

#Regret #Thinking #Unnecessary
If you take a bale of hay and tie it to the tail of a mule and then strike a match and set the bale of hay on fire, and if you then compare the energy expended shortly thereafter by the mule with the energy expended by yourself in the striking of the match, you will understand the concept of amplification.
-- William Shockley

#Ties #Fire #Energy
The major cause for American Negroes intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racially genetic in origin and thus not remedial to a major degree by improvement in environment.
-- William Shockley

#Race #Intellectual #Degrees
Nature has color-coded groups of individuals so that statistically reliable predictions of their adaptability to intellectual rewarding and effective lives can easily be made and profitably used by the pragmatic man-in-the street.
-- William Shockley

#Men #Color #Intellectual
I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching & does not mean poor training, but only a strong-headedness.
-- William Shockley

#Strong #Teaching #Mean

The last chapter in any successful genocide is the one in which the oppressor can remove their hands and say, 'My God, what are these people doing to themselves? They're killing each other. They're killing themselves while we watch them die.' This is how we came to own these United States. This is the legacy of manifest destiny.
Whereas the average individuals "often have not the slightest idea of what they are, of what they want, of what their own opinions are," self-actualizing individuals have "superior awareness of their own impulses, desires, opinions, and subjective reactions in general."
When I hear Obama speak he just seems really sincere and he just seems like somebody who actually has his heart and his motivation in the right place. Forget about color or race or gender or whatever, he's got his heart in the right place.
No star is lost once we have seen, We always may be what we might have been.
You seen it, was it as pretty as me?
I am the biggest face of boxing right now. That's how I feel. I am the greatest of this era.
When I want to talk to someone from Golden Boy, I make sure Richard calls me. Bosses talk to bosses.
Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when turned loose upon a defenseless and unerudite public.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
I've had my run in with trouble. Fortunately, you know, one slap on the hand is usually the last time for me... I learned my lesson.

William Shockley famous quotes

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