George M. Church Quotes

Genes are not destiny!

One of the things that got me interested in genetics was the relationship between genes and environment. We are all dealt a certain deck of cards, but our environment can influence the outcomes.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my genes because I can't do anything about them.

They say your genetics are going to set your direction regardless of what happens, but I think there's more to it than that.

Blood is not destiny.

Genes don't mean necessarily that you have got a certain strand of gene that makes you particularly acceptable as a public official.

People think genes are an absolute cause of traits. But the notion that the genome is the blueprint for humanity is a very bad metaphor. If you think we're hard-wired and deterministic, there should indeed be a lot more genes.

Genetics play a huge part in who we are. But we also have free will.

Heredity proposes and development disposes.

Do we make ourselves into what we become or is it built into our genes, into the fate spun for us by whatever shapes events?

Well, it arose out of two long-term concerns - the first being the possibility of genetic manipulation, nature versus nurture, what constitutes how people get to be how they are.

If you talk to geneticists they are constantly finding that your genes are being switched on and off because of the environment. Genes alone do not determine an exact path in your life.

I align myself with almost all researchers in assuming that anything we do is a composite of whatever genetic limitations were given to us by our parents and whatever kinds of environmental opportunities are available.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.

We used to think that our destiny is in the stars. Now we know that its in our genes, in our DNA.

Knowing that changing lifestyle changes our genes is often very motivating - not to blame, but to empower.

I don't believe in predestination - except for genetic predilections.

I wonder whether being a scientist's daughter makes you so conflicted about free will and fate.

Your genetics load the gun. Your lifestyle pulls the trigger.

It used to be thought that our genes were historically immutable and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

Genes can't possibly explain all of what makes us what we are.

One of the things about genetics that has become clearer as we've done genomes - as we've worked our way through the evolutionary tree, including humans - is that we're probably much more genetic animals than we want to confess we are.

My genetics are good, but they aren't crazy He-Man style.