Quote

Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.

Physicists must feel they are in the most exciting field in the world. Their minds must be afire.

I've always felt that the Nobel Prize gives me nothing as far as science is concerned.

I didn't do my work for money or prizes - only for the excitement of discovery.

Physics is really figuring out how to discover new things that are counterintuitive, like quantum mechanics. It's really counterintuitive.

I was so surprised because I'm not too sure whether I could win a Nobel Prize, you know, because basically, physics, it means that usually people was awarded for the invention of the basic theory. But in my case, not a basic theory, in my case just making the device, you know.

As history has shown, pure science research ultimately ends up applying to something. We just don't know it at the time.

It's an unusual opportunity, a chance for so many people to share in the excitement and the fun of the fact that we may be on to hints as to what the Universe is made out of. I guess the whole point of a prize like this is to be able to get that out into the community.

Scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.