Nobel Prize-winners, geneticists, inventors (of the Internet, of the hydrogen bomb), surgeons, myrmecologists — people who’ve changed the very we live in with what they’ve found and how they’ve applied what they’ve found — share their insights into the discovery process, technology, and the human mind.

“Some people would say that because we don’t know, it can’t be. I would say that because we don’t know, we don’t know.”
— Charles H. Townes

“One by one, the great questions of philosophy, including ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Where did we come from?’ are being answered to different degrees of solidity. So gradually, science is simply taking over the big questions created by philosophy. Philosophy consists largely of the history of failed models of the brain.”
— E. O. Wilson

“Luck favors the prepared mind.”
— J. Craig Venter

“You don’t have to be young to learn about technology. You have to feel young.”
— Vint Cerf

“Anything connected to war is wrong in some people’s opinion. But there is a Latin statement: If you wish for peace, prepare for war.”
— Edward Teller

“Do things as soon as you can. If a decision needs to be made, make it. It gives you more time to change your mind.”
— James Watson

“One of the rarest things that we do is think. I don’t know why people don’t do it more often. It doesn’t cost anything. Think about that.”
— Michael DeBakey

For more wisdom and life lessons from world leaders, cultural icons, and athletes, head to Esquire.com.