Francis Crick

If you want to understand function, study structure,

— Francis Crick

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

— Francis Crick

It has yet to be shown by direct biochemical methods, as opposed to the indirect genetic evidence mentioned earlier, that the code…

— Francis Crick

Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism.

— Francis Crick

Jim and I hit it off immediately, partly because our interests were astonishingly similar and partly, I suspect, because a certain youthful…

— Francis Crick

While Occam's razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology. It is…

— Francis Crick

A final proof of our ideas can only be obtained by detailed studies on the alterations produced in the amino acid sequence…

— Francis Crick

Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.

— Francis Crick

The balance of evidence both from the cell-free system and from the study of mutation, suggests that this does not occur at…

— Francis Crick

The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea, because then he'll fight and die for it.

— Francis Crick

“How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?”

— Francis Crick

A comparison between the triplets tentatively deduced by these methods with the changes in amino acid sequence produced by mutation shows a…

— Francis Crick

If the code does indeed have some logical foundation then it is legitimate to consider all the evidence, both good and bad,…

— Francis Crick

A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong

— Francis Crick

One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement.…

— Francis Crick

If Watson and I had not discovered the [DNA] structure, instead of being revealed with a flourish it would have trickled out…

— Francis Crick

Chance is the only source of true novelty.

— Francis Crick

We are sometimes asked what the result would be if we put four +'s in one gene. To answer this my colleagues…

— Francis Crick

Since I essentially knew nothing, I had an almost completely free choice.

— Francis Crick

“The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea, because then he'll fight and die for it." [As quoted in…

— Francis Crick

Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy…

— Francis Crick

A man who is right every time is not likely to do very much.

— Francis Crick

It is one of the more striking generalizations of biochemistry - which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical textbooks -…

— Francis Crick

Rather than believe that Watson and Crick made the DNA structure, I would rather stress that the structure made Watson and Crick.

— Francis Crick

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…

— Francis Crick