Allegra Goodman Quotes

#1. Though experience should be our guide ... and we see mistakes are common at the age of twenty-three, it must be acknowledged that not every youthful feeling begins unworthily and ends in error. If this were the case, mankind would have perished long ago.

Allegra Goodman

#2. I have a dark sense of humor,' Fanny explained.
'What's that supposed to mean?' asked Honor.
'It means I'm funny once you get to know me,' Fanny said.

Allegra Goodman

#3. Reading was like visiting distant friends.

Allegra Goodman

#4. How sad, he thought, that desire found new objects but did not abate, that when it came to longing there was no end.

Allegra Goodman

#5. People ask every day, "Why was I put on earth?" As if there is perhaps one reason. The truth is that there are too many reasons to count, and each reason and each soul connects to every other,

Allegra Goodman

#6. Know your literary tradition, savor it, steal from it, but when you sit down to write, forget about worshiping greatness and fetishizing masterpieces.

Allegra Goodman

#7. Women hate each other in science. You know why? Because the few that are around were trained by men. They survived by being twice as good and twice as competitive and twice as badass as the guys.

Allegra Goodman

#8. She herself vacillated when it came to belief. She did not particularly believe in God. Or, rather, she didn't believe in a particular God. Nevertheless, she kept an open mind. She was not a melancholy agnostic, but the optimistic kind. She liked to give God the benefit of the doubt.

Allegra Goodman

#9. Talent and intelligence, not to mention tireless hard work, got lab scientists through the door, but - this was the dirty secret - you needed luck.

Allegra Goodman

#10. We've got an acquisitive gene. We want and want, and there's no way around it.

Allegra Goodman

#11. The new one actually reads, but only to pass judgment. This is the way kids learn today. Someone told them how you feel is more important than what you know, and so they think accusations are ideas. This is political correction run amok.

Allegra Goodman