Science Quote by Steven Squyres

There is something almost disarmingly radical about a life that begins with certainty. "I can't ever remember not wanting to be a scientist" reads like a throwaway line, but it’s a quiet manifesto: curiosity as identity, not hobby; vocation as default setting, not a late-stage pivot. Steven Squyres, best known for leading NASA’s Mars rover missions, isn’t selling a motivational poster version of STEM. He’s describing an inner continuity that predates resumes, grants, and prestige.

The phrasing matters. "Can't ever remember" is softer than "I always knew". It admits the limits of memory while insisting on an unbroken thread. That subtle humility is very scientist-coded: confident about the pattern, careful about the claim. "Wanting" does the other key bit of work. It frames science as desire, not duty. In an era where scientific labor is often discussed as institutional, competitive, and bureaucratic, Squyres centers the original engine: wanting to know.

The subtext is also about time. Scientists are trained to tolerate long horizons - experiments that fail, missions that slip, discoveries that arrive decades late. A childhood impulse that never switched off becomes a narrative of stamina. It implies that the glamour (Mars! rovers!) sits atop years of unglamorous persistence, and that the only sustainable fuel is something close to obsession.

Contextually, the line nudges back against the modern myth that we must constantly reinvent ourselves. Squyres offers a different template: not reinvention, but refinement - a lifelong sharpening of the same question mark.