Dan Shechtman quotes:

I see the root of the education crisis in the primary and secondary schools. Academia is doing a fairly good job. The root of the problem is the teachers. Some are great. But too many of them are not capable of being good role models. They can't control the classes. They lose too much time trying to create a learning environment.

In the forefront of science, there is not much difference between religion and science. People harbor beliefs. That's what happens when people believe something religiously.

On April 8, 1982, I was alone in the electron microscope room when I discovered the Icosahedral Phase that opened the field of quasi-periodic crystals.

My childhood dream was to study mechanical engineering. After reading 'The Mysterious Island' - which I read 25 times as a boy - I thought that was the best thing a person could do. The engineer in the book knows mechanics and physics, and he creates a whole way of life on the island out of nothing. I wanted to be like that.

Colleges will try to get the good students. That's the way to go. When I chaired my department of Materials Engineering at the Technion in 1990, we started a program for which we set the bar very high. It was the highest at the Technion, above electrical engineering and medicine.

Korean students are hard working, talented, and they do what they need to do. They succeed in exams. They are highly motivated to succeed in tests.

The good news is world population growth rate decreases systematically and is expected to reach zero by 2050, thanks to urbanisation and women's education.

I was a subject of ridicule and lectures about the basics of crystallography. The leader of the opposition to my findings was the two-time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling, the idol of the American Chemical Society and one of the most famous scientists in the world.

Israel, in general, should learn from other nations. We have a tendency to teach the world. In many cases, we should learn from the world, because they make advances.

Sustainable development requires human ingenuity. People are the most important resource.

The good people look for challenges. When teaching becomes a prestigious profession, then you'll get good people.

When my grandchildren are older and my great-grandchildren start growing up, first of all, I want them to be in Israel. I don't want them to leave the country because they have no choice.

I'm proud of my family, very proud - I have ten grandchildren, four children, and one wife.

Crystallographers believed in X-ray results, which are of course very accurate. But the x-rays are limited, and electron microscopy filled the gap, and so the discovery of quasicrystals could have been discovered only by electron microscopy, and the community of crystallographers, for several years, was not willing to listen.

Select a subject that interests you and make an effort to become an expert in that field. I promise you, if you make the effort, and you become an expert, you will have a wonderful career.

I fell in love with science and decided to continue for my Ph.D., and from there on, I was a scientist.

Science is the ultimate tool to reveal the laws of nature, and the one word written on its banner is Truth.

The frontiers of science, on the very small scale and very large scale, require large investments and international effort.

Young people in Israel are encouraged to design, produce and sell their products from high school. Technical universities also matter. Teach and introduce entrepreneurship courses in technical universities.

I can unite the people of Israel, so I won't speak about controversial issues, which divide the people.

A president should look for what binds the people together rather than what drives them apart. As soon as you are identified with one side of the political map, you are no longer everybody's president.

I am a proud Zionist. I can tell you about every blossom that grows in this land. I know the history and the Bible.

Wherever I go in the world, I'm treated like royalty.

Me as president would not be like anybody else as president. Everyone does the job differently.

The message from the Technion when I was a student was: 'You will be so good that when you graduate, everyone will want to hire you.'

I told everyone who was ready to listen that I had material with pentagonal symmetry. People just laughed at me.

I told myself, 'I am teaching entrepreneurship, so I should be an entrepreneur myself.'