The development of science is basically a social phenomenon, dependent on hard work and mutual support of many scientists and on the societies in which they live.

The imposing edifice of science provides a challenging view of what can be achieved by the accumulation of many small efforts in a steady objective and dedicated search for truth.

I don't think that science is complete at all. We don't understand everything, and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies. We just have to accept that we don't understand.

I knew I wanted to be a scientist. Which kind of scientist was the question.

In many cases, people who win a Nobel prize, their work slows down after that because of the distractions. Yes, fame is rewarding, but it's a pity if it keeps you from doing the work you are good at.

It was strange, in a way, because there were no ideas involved in the laser that weren't already known by somebody 25 years before lasers were discovered. The ideas were all there; just, nobody put it together.

Alfred Nobel really understood very well the necessary supra-natural character of the human enterprise.

Science has faith. We make postulates. We can't prove those postulates, but we have faith in them.

Science is exploration. The fundamental nature of exploration is that we don't know what's there. We can guess and hope and aim to find out certain things, but we have to expect surprises.

There is some truth to the idea that, in the fields of science, individual contributions of great significance are possible.