“Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.”

“Science is sometimes thought of as being difficult and frustrating because there’s a high failure rate. But really, there are no failures. Rather, there are experiments who’s outcome you did not anticipate- this is your chance to learn something new.

I took organic chemistry because it was required of my biology major, and I fashioned myself a Pre-Med. But then, surprisingly, I found the class to be elegant, beautiful, and intrinsically understandable. I fell in love with the subject to the point where my friends were going out to parties on a Friday or Saturday night, and there I was making excuses to stay home in my dorm and read my organic chemistry books.”

“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”