My mother would give my brothers and me a pile of catalogues and let us pick what we wanted for Christmas.

Meaning of the quote

For this quote, Kary Mullis is describing how his mother would let him and his brothers choose their own Christmas gifts from a stack of catalogs. This shows that his mother trusted her children to make their own decisions and pick the presents they really wanted, rather than just telling them what they would get. This is a kind and thoughtful way for parents to involve their kids in the gift-giving process.

About Kary Mullis

Kary Mullis was an American biochemist who invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. However, he also held some controversial views on topics like climate change and AIDS.

More about the author

More quotes from Kary Mullis

The horror of it is, every goddamn thing you look at seems pretty scary to me.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

PCR made it easier to see that certain people are infected with HIV.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

I’m really optimistic in the mornings.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Science consistently produces a new crop of miraculous truths and dazzling devices every year.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

My mother would give my brothers and me a pile of catalogues and let us pick what we wanted for Christmas.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

The mystery of that damn virus has been generated by the $2 billion a year they spend on it.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Do we care about these people that are HIV-positive whose lives have been ruined? Those are the people I’m the most concerned about. Every night I think about this.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Each of us have things and thoughts and descriptions of an amazing universe in our possession that kings in the 17th Century would have gone to war to possess.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

In the 1950s in Columbia, South Carolina, it was considered OK for kids to play with weird things. We could go to the hardware store and buy 100 feet of dynamite fuse.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Science grows like a weed every year.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

They can’t pooh-pooh me now, because of who I am.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

I’m not politically correct.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

We are the recipients of scientific method. We can each be a creative and active part of it if we so desire.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Art is subject to arbitrary fashion.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

It’s not blaming the victim. It’s not anybody’s fault. They just did something that didn’t work, that’s all.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Law shuttles between freeing us and enslaving us.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Here’s a bunch of people practising a new set of behavioural norms. Apparently it didn’t work because a lot of them got sick. That’s the conclusion. You don’t necessarily know why it happened. But you start there.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Religion is inwardly focused and driven only to sustain itself.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

Sometimes in the morning, when it’s a good surf, I go out there, and I don’t feel like it’s a bad world.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

People don’t realize that molecules themselves are somewhat hypothetical, and that their interactions are more so, and that the biological reactions are even more so.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

I’ve been writing about my boyhood, when I was a little kid back on my grandfather’s farm where we didn’t know about black widow spiders or all that stuff. But writing about that is so easy.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

People realize this man knows what the hell’s going on and nobody else does.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist

I can say exactly what I feel about any issue, and I’m going to do that.

Kary Mullis

American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner, AIDS denialist, climate change denialist