Harold E. Varmus Quotes

We must give scientists the opportunity through funding and time to pursue curiosity-based, long-term, basic-science research.

There is actually a fair amount of money being put behind science today.

despite its apparent impracticality, the Administration values discovery-oriented science, and aims to continue to support the grand quest for knowledge about the universe at the largest and smallest scales.

Who does science determines what science gets done.

So now, if we don't fund the physical sciences, where will the Next Big Thing come from?

Scientific discovery requires sustained funding for decades, and politicians can destroy it in a single budget cycle.

Fundamental science that may not achieve results must be supported at the state level.

By the time we made the discovery in 2015, the National Science Foundation had put close to $1.1 billion into it.

What props up biological research, at least in the vaunted U.S. of A., involves a situation so deeply imbued with entitlement mentality that it has sunk into institutional corruption.

Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security.

When I was the NIH director, I often expressed envy of institute directors: they had the money and ran the scientific programmes.

I think that we scientists are seeking an understanding of the natural world. We come in various types - chemists and physicists and biologists and such - and we all have the same goal. We are making progress.

The research I have been doing - studying how foodstuffs yield energy in living cells - does not lead to the kind of knowledge that can be expected to give immediate practical benefits to mankind. If I have chosen this field of study, it was because I believed in its importance in spite of its theoretical character.

There are too few people working in the area of viral pathogenesis and immunity, too little funding, too many problems, and too little time.

Science is the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature, and the one word written on its banner is Truth.

we need to work harder if we're going to continue what Carl Sagan saw as a new Renaissance of discovery. One way is by explaining to the Congress and the public why it is in our national interest to get this work funded. We can win this – and do what is right by the American people – if we can get the public to understand what's at stake.

The business of biomedical research is mostly about failure. Few projects we commission will ultimately result in success. But every study we do contributes to the body of knowledge that brings science and society closer to a solution.

The United States needs to be a leader in scientific research.

This is an appropriate role for the federal government - to invest in basic research.

The spending in science and technology need to be to increased.

If I had a weak ego, and doubts about this, the first genome would not yet have been completed with US and UK government funding.

Wellcome Trust focuses on supporting outstanding researchers, accelerating the application of research, and exploring medicine in historical and cultural contexts. We believe passionately that breakthroughs emerge when the most talented researchers are given the resources and freedom they need to pursue their goals.

We need to not reduce but increase our commitment to research.

Theoretical physics hardly requires any research funding, so I never felt the need. The overall government and institutional support has been good enough for my work.

The decline of particle physics in the U.S. is really a symptom of the erratic and sometimes anti-scientific attitudes in Washington and the incompetence of Congress in managing science.