"I thought that if I patented it, no one else would be able to do work with it. I might earn some money, but I was not interested in that. I was interested in applications for many researchers, creating more fundamental science. So I decided not to patent it."
"In our case the project was a great risk because for more than fifty years the people had not succeeded to improve the electron optics in spite of severe efforts"
"... fluorescence microscopy in its early years was considered a specialized method which, in the opinion of some, was doomed to fail. "
"It took me about twenty years before I had the right system that could be realized in practice and that scientist said it could work"
"A project for a Ph.D. student must provide him with good training and, if he is doing experimental work, there is much to be said for choosing a problem which involves the construction or modification of some fairly complicated apparatus. I have always felt that university research in engineering should be adventurous and should not mind tackling speculative projects"
"Scanning electron microscopy: Second best no more."
"It is my intention to offer a prize of $1,000 to the first guy who can take the information on the page of a book and put it on an area 1/25,000 smaller in linear scale in such manner that it can be read by an electron microscope. "
"...a lot of people will advise you. On the one hand you want to listen, and on the other hand you want to test it and say, ‘Okay, is this really making sense, or is it just that somebody I really respect said this?’”"