No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?
James D. WatsonRead
I have an odd theory on happiness, and it bothers people. My general theory is that happiness is a reward for an animal doing what it should be doing. So if a horse runs, it feels happy. Or if you are too thin, you can't be happy, because evolution wants you to be tense and anxious, trying to wake up in the morning looking for food.
Interpretation
Happiness is a natural reward for fulfilling one's purpose or needs.
James D. Watson's quote suggests that happiness is intrinsically linked to fulfilling biological and evolutionary roles. It implies that when creatures, including humans, are engaged in activities aligned with their natural instincts—like a horse running—they experience happiness. Conversely, he points out the tensions that arise when individuals stray too far from their natural state, indicating that true happiness comes from being grounded in one's own purpose and evolutionary needs.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational talk about pursuing one's true passions.
No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?
I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated.
Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favour research using embryonic stem cells and yet politicians continue to pander to the outspoken religious minority that is hampering efforts to develop this potentially valuable technology.
DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.
Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.
If you go into science, I think you better go in with a dream that maybe you, too, will get a Nobel Prize. It's not that I went in and I thought I was very bright and I was going to get one, but I'll confess, you know, I knew what it was.
To live happily is an inward power of the soul.
The rights essential to happiness. . . . We claim them from a higher source - from the King of kings and Lord of all the earth.
One of the things psychologists used to say was that if you are depressed, anxious or angry, you couldn't be happy. Those were at opposite ends of a continuum. I believe that you can be suffering or have a mental illness and be happy - just not in the same moment that you're sad.
Linus: What would you say you want most out of life, Charlie Brown? To be happy? CB: Oh, no. I don't expect that. I really don't. I just don't want to be unhappy!
One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.
It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available-more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more.
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