Maurice Wilkins Quotes

New Zealand, Physicist
December 15, 1916 – October, 5, 2004.

Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar. He is best known for his work at King's College London on the structure of DNA.

Also known as Biologist

It is essential for genetic material to be able to make exact copies of itself; otherwise growth would produce disorder, life could not originate, and favourable forms would not be perpetuated by natural selection.

Maurice Wilkins
- Life
- Growth
DNA is like Midas's gold, everyone who touches it goes mad.

Maurice Wilkins
- Gold
- Mad
- DNA

I mean, the general rule is if you're not prepared to make a mistake, you're not going to make much progress.

Maurice Wilkins
- Mistake
- Progress
In the time of my parents, before World War One, most people who came to New Zealand from Europe were the more enterprising people; the people who were stronger mentally. It takes a certain amount of imagination to make a life on the other side of the world, the same imagination it takes to climb the tallest mountain.

Maurice Wilkins
- People
- War
- Imagination