Jonas Salk

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.”

“I pictured myself as a virus or a cancer cell and tried to sense what it would be like.”

“Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next.”

“The worst tragedy that could have befallen me was my success. I knew right away that I was through - cast out.”

“Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.”

“I look upon ourselves as partners in all of this, and that each of us contributes and does what he can do best. And so I see not a top rung and a bottom rung - I see all this horizontally - and I see this as part of a matrix. And I see every human being as having a purpose, a destiny, if you like - the destiny that exists in each of us - and find ways and means to provide such opportunities for everyone.”

“There is hope in dreams, imagination, and in the courage of those who wish to make those dreams a reality.”

“It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner.”

“Some people are constructive, if you like. Others are destructive. It's this diversity in humankind that results in some making positive contributions and some negative contributions. It's necessary to have enough to make positive contributions to overcome the problems of each age.”

“What makes your heart leap?”

“Are we being good ancestors?”

“When things get bad enough, then something happens to correct the course. And it's for that reason that I speak about evolution as an error-making and an error-correcting process. And if we can be ever so much better - ever so much slightly better - at error correcting than at error making, then we'll make it.”

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

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

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