Noam Chomsky Quotes

Physics is becoming too difficult for the physicists.

We absolutely do some of the best science in the world in Canada, across a broad spectrum of disciplines: quantum computing in Waterloo, paleontology in Alberta, neuroscience at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health in Vancouver, and many more.

The mathematicians know a great deal about very little and the physicists very little about a great deal.

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.

We can't all do everything.

When results are shared freely amongst the biological community, as has been done for the worm and the Human Genome Projects, specialist scientists can move much more rapidly towards their goals.

At the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, we have long had a tradition of close cooperation between physicists and technicians.

I don't think academic writing ever was wonderful. However, science used to be much less specialized.

Read every book, blog, website, whatever, about what you want to be an expert in.

We can't all be good at everything. This is partly the logic behind having a team in the first place, so each role can be filled with the person best suited for that role and together, every job and every strength is covered.

As a physicist, I can state that none of the 18 physicists who signed the Statement works in this field; nor to my knowledge has ever published a paper on this subject.

Study the field that you want to get into and know everything about it.

In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.

You see and work with many of the same people over and over again; they are all specialists in what they do. I could never do their jobs, and they say they wouldn't know how to start to do a warm-up.

Science extends an invitation to all nations.

In science your competitors are your colleagues.

The divine wisdom which requires a division of labor has sown different abilities and tendencies in human nature and has enabled human beings to carry out the duty of establishing sciences and developing technology. The fulfillment of this duty is obligatory upon humanity as a whole, though not on every individual.

There's a reason I write articles and go out for good dinners: because I'm better at research than cooking. And there are people who are much better at cooking than research, so it's mutually beneficial for us to specialize.

Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.

Concentrate on doing what you do best, and let others do the rest.

Young man, if I could remember the names of these particles, I would have been a botanist.

Life isn't about trying to be an expert in everything. It's about being an expert in one thing and offering it to the world.

Who would have thought around 1900 that in fifty years time we would know so much more and understand so much less.

One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you'll be a national authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.

We know too much for one man to know too much.