1648: Robert Langer

“When you pick a career, don’t do it because of money… you’ll love it and it could have an impact on the world.”

“Because I knew something about engineering and something about medicine, I was able to put those concepts together to come up with new ideas.”

“You’d think ‘Well, you could combine them,’ and that would give me ideas that nobody at that time had.”

“In fact, really the only thing I had going for me is I hadn’t read that literature!”

“I found over 200 ways to get it to not work.”

“I’m an optimist… I think then and I think now that most things are possible.”

“What can we do with our skills and with our people that can make the biggest impact on the world?”

“Knowing how to deal with failure is an essential key to success.”

“I’ve probably failed hundreds of times before I’ve gotten the success.”

“Successful people are often those who deal well with failure.”

“Nobody before us had done that, and we were told it was impossible.”

“I don’t like to give up.”

“I learned that if you’re not your own champion, nobody else will be.”

“Rather than take it from your house, why don’t you ask the question, ‘What do you really want in this material…?’”

“If you really believe in what you’re trying to do, ‘no’ is not going to stop you.”

“I would not be where I am today without having had so much support and help from so many people.”

“Chemistry just is so fundamental to everything.”

“Reactions can happen, and you can make things that you could never make before.”

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is a blogger on Medium with over 4,000 posts on the platform. He is the Founder and Publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978–1–0692343; 978–1–0673505) and Editor-in-Chief of *In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369–6885). He writes for [International Policy Digest](https://intpolicydigest.org/) (ISSN: 2332–9416), [The Humanist](https://thehumanist.com/contributor/scott-douglas-jacobsen/) (Print: ISSN, 0018–7399; Online: ISSN, 2163–3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), [Humanist Perspectives](https://humanistperspectives.org/author/scottdjacobsen) (ISSN: 1719–6337), [A Further Inquiry](https://substack.com/home/post/p-151199019?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web) (SubStack), [Vocal](https://vocal.media/authors/scott-douglas-jacobsen), Medium, [The Good Men Project](https://goodmenproject.com/author/scott-douglas-jacobsen/), The New Enlightenment Project, [The Washington Outsider](https://www.thewashingtonoutsider.com/?s=Scott+Douglas+Jacobsen+)*, rabble.ca, and other media. His bibliography index can be found via the Jacobsen Bankat In-Sight Publishing. He has served in national and international leadership roles within humanist and media organizations, held several academic fellowships, and currently serves on several boards. He is a member in good standing in numerous media organizations, including the Canadian Association of Journalists, PEN Canada (CRA: 88916 2541 RR0001), Reporters Without Borders (SIREN: 343 684 221/SIRET: 343 684 221 00041/EIN: 20–0708028), and others.

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