Francis Crick

We were searching for a structure so simple and beautiful that it had to be true.

The brain is a machine assembled not to understand itself, but to survive.

The origin of life appears to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to be satisfied to get it going.

I would not trust any experiment in biology unless it was confirmed by a physicist.

The Christian believer is like a tenant who is about to sign a lease on a flat when someone tells him that the owner of the flat does not exist.

If, for example, a certain protein consistently appears in the urine of schizophrenics, one would be foolish not to take notice.

The genetic code is not an arbitrary code, but one which was determined by the laws of physics and chemistry.

A theory that fits all the facts is bound to be wrong, as some of the facts will be wrong.

It is not so much what one does, as what one is, that matters.

The more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know.

A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works.

If you want to get ahead in science, you have to be a bit of a maverick.

The greatest joy in science is to understand something that no one else has understood before.

If you are honest, you will find that you are often wrong. But if you are not honest, you will never find out.

No important discovery is ever made without a 'mad' guess.

A man who is not a socialist at twenty has no heart; a man who is still a socialist at forty has no head.

One of the most striking features of the human mind is its ability to believe what it wants to believe.

Free will is an illusion.

Our minds are just a lot of neurons firing.

There is no scientific evidence for the existence of a soul.