Jonas Salk Thoughts

Nothing happens quite by chance. It's a question of accretion of information and experience.

My ambition was to bring to bear on medicine a chemical approach. I did that by chemical manipulation of viruses and chemical ways of thinking in biomedical research.

I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.

A good parent gives their child roots and wings.

Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.

My job is to help people see what I see. If it's of value, fine. And, if it's not of value, then at least I've done what I can do.

When you inoculate children with a polio vaccine, you don't sleep well for two or three months.

The art of science is as important as so-called technical science. You need both. It's this combination that must be recognized and acknowledged and valued.

If humankind would accept and acknowledge this responsibility and become creatively engaged in the process of evolution, consciously as well as unconsciously, a new reality would emerge, and a new age could be born.

Reply when questioned on the safety of the polio vaccine he developed: It is safe, and you can't get safer than safe.