Francis Crick

scientific study brain universe

"There is no scientific study more vital to man than the study of his own brain. Our entire view of the universe depends on it."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

temptation work thinking

"Avoid the temptation to work so hard that there is no time left for serious thinking."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

scientist science criticism friendship

"A good scientist values criticism almost higher than friendship: no, in science criticism is the height and measure of friendship."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

consciousness frequency neuron brain symphony orchestra

"Consciousness is somehow a by-product of the simultaneous, high frequency firing of neurons in different parts of the brain. It's the meshing of these frequencies that generates consciousness, just as tones from individual instruments produce the rich, complex, & seamless sounds of a symphony orchestra."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

science brainwash discovery

"When you start in science, you are brainwashed into believing how careful you must be, and how difficult it is to discover things. There's something that might be called the 'graduate student syndrome'; graduate students hardly believe they can make a discovery."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

life busy wasted science

"A busy life is a wasted life."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

pack of neurons

"You’re nothing but a pack of neurons."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

chance source novelty

"Chance is the only source of true novelty."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

prose difficult understand tedious read scientific paper

"There is no form of prose more difficult to understand and more tedious to read than the average scientific paper."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

exploratory research fog groping

"Exploratory research is really like working in a fog. You don't know where you're going. You're just groping. Then people learn about it afterwards and think how straightforward it was."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

mathematician intellect lazy

"In my experience most mathematicians are intellectually lazy."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

exact knowledge enemy vitalism

"Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)

biochemistry amino acid base nature

"It is one of the more striking generalizations of biochemistry - which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical textbooks - that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature."

— Francis Crick (1916-2004)