Charles Hard Townes Quotes & Sayings

“I was very eager to produce an oscillator for short waves. I was doing science with microwaves, and I would get down to a few millimetres in wavelength, but I wanted to get shorter wavelengths; I wanted to get into the infra-red because I saw there was a lot more to be done there.”

“We can't avoid age. However, we can avoid some aging. Continue to do things. Be active. Life is fantastic in the way it adjusts to demands; if you use your muscles and mind, they stay there much longer.”

“The imposing edifice of science provides a challenging view of what can be achieved by the accumulation of many small efforts in a steady objective and dedicated search for truth.”

“Science is exploration. The fundamental nature of exploration is that we don't know what's there. We can guess and hope and aim to find out certain things, but we have to expect surprises.”

“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.”

“I knew I wanted to be a scientist. Which kind of scientist was the question.”

“One of the things my family taught me - I think very important in religion and science - is that you must be ready to stand up for what you think. Decide what you really think is best, and stick with it.”

“Alfred Nobel really understood very well the necessary supra-natural character of the human enterprise.”

“I was brought up as Christian, and while my ideas have changed, I have always felt myself religiously oriented.”

“Much public thinking follows a rut. The same thing is true in science. People get stuck and don't look in other directions.”