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
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
I was reading five or six years ahead of my grade during public school. I was pretty bored. I made a contract with some of my teachers that if I didn’t ask too many questions, I could work in the back of the room. – Joshua Lederberg
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
To have the recognition of your colleagues is great. The public attention is a mixed blessing. – Joshua Lederberg
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
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
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
I was making a lot of momentous personal decisions. I was still very very young: when the prize was awarded, I was 33; the work I had done when I was 21. – Joshua Lederberg
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
I certainly saw science as a kind of calling, and one with as much legitimacy as a religious calling. – Joshua Lederberg
Being successful at a very young age gave me the confidence and the capability to try out other things. – Joshua Lederberg
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
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
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
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
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
