"While accepting the fact that his later mental struggles to discern the nature of particles – 'drawing circles on the blackboard', so he relates, being a visible sign of his mental activity – did not lead to any breakthrough, he expresses the conviction that a more oriental approach is a better way to deeper understanding than the present pursuit of ever greater detail with an ever greater mass of facts produced by more and more sophisticated experimentation. To him all this activity produces barriers between the individual scientist and his ability to perceive Nature as a whole."

"Hideki Yukawa's mind throughout his life remained very much an oriental one. We learn that of the ancient Chinese writings that he discovered early in life, the ones that made the greatest and most lasting impression on him were those of Taoism in general and of Chuangtse in particular... this school centre on man's relation with the world of nature, and his oneness with it. ... To Yukawa the awareness of nature in a much more intuitive way than any Westerner would accept as part of scientific thinking appeared to be a vital ingredient in creativity. He felt not only that his own success in moving theoretical physics a step further owed something to this way of thinking, but that an element of it can be seen in such creative acts as Heisenberg's formulation of the uncertainty principle."

"Yukawa is explicit in acknowledging that the growth of modern science from the seeds sown in Western, mainly Greek, antiquity could not have occurred in the East, given the nature of Eastern, mainly Chinese, ways of thought... Physics, he believes, has moved and will move further in future in directions more in harmony with Eastern thinking."

"[After the publication of his 1934 paper proposing meson theory] I felt like a traveler who rests himself at a small tea shop at the top of a mountain slope. At that time I was not thinking about whether there were any more mountains ahead... I do not want to write beyond this point, because those days when I studied relentlessly are nostalgic to me; and on the other hand, I am sad when I think how I have become increasingly preoccupied with matters other than study."

"... it is obvious that creativity gives no merit in the absence of adequate basic knowledge. Accurate and undistorted knowledge is most important. It will be disastrous if one’s mind is preoccupied with incorrect or distorted preconceptions. The fundamental laws of science and chemistry are absolute and fully trustable. However, various theories, rules and hypotheses made on experiential bases are not laws; these should be trusted only with reservations, especially when studying an unusual phenomenon like bioluminescence."

"I think almost all people would think, if I have no common sense or common knowledge in such field, so that is completely disadvantage, but if someone wants to develop some completely new thing, if we are trying to deduce something from such common knowledge, that we will be just trying to develop some step but we have to jump up, so sometime, such kind of common knowledge will be an obstacle, because at that time, most of the chemists thought that it is completely impossible to ionise such big molecule like protein but at that time, at least, I was not a specialist so I can do anything."

"Probably up to university student, I was a completely shy guy and if I, for example, even in Japan, I had to give some talk in front of, for example 100 people, I would be completely upset and I couldn’t say anything, just ahh. But fortunately, my colleague at that time tried to teach me how to cope with such stress, so at first just try to say something in front of the colleagues and I did and so next step is to say something in front of my employees in my company, so next step is try to give a talk to the people in the conference. So, step by step I learn how to do in front of bigger and bigger number of people, so now I’m here."

"Keep stupid, keep crazy. Knowledge begins with wonder. Success as a scientist is based on keen curiosity. If one wants to enjoy academic life, I would recommend him or her to be different."

"There is no promised road leading to definite results. What's important is how to keep open as many options as possible."

"We don't know where breakthroughs will come from and there is no guarantee that they will come from a popular area which is currently drawing a lot of attention. I think the natural pattern is that something new, something which no one was paying attention to before appears when there is a bottleneck. It would be a serious mistake to nip things like this in the bud."

"You never know where a breakthrough might occur, so please pursue various possibilities for potential research. You may not see results as quickly as you wish, but always remember to respect your ideas when you research."

"...a bride who is bullied by her mother-in-law will herself become a bad mother-in-law."

"Nature was not satisfied by a simple point charge but required a charge with spin."