An attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy.

Money can buy a fine dog but it is kindness that makes him wag his tail.

Capitalism, though it may not always give the scientific worker a living wage, will always protect him, as being one of the geese which produce golden eggs for its table.

This is my prediction for the future: Whatever hasn't happened will happen, and no one will be safe from it.

The aeroplane will never fly.

Teleology is like a mistress to a biologist: he cannot live without her but he's unwilling to be seen with her in public.

Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than the classics.

Man armed with science is like a baby with a box of matches.

The wise man regulates his conduct by the theories both of religion and science. But he regards these theories not as statements of ultimate fact but as art-forms.

Christianity is haunted by the theory of a God with a craving for bloody sacrifices.

Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination.

There’s always a reason to look up.

My greatest gratitude

A lingering grain of inefficacy capitulates to the arrogance of authority.

In order to make a great, epic movie, you have to have the four Bs - babes, bullets, blood and blades.

There is a power in the human mind ... to see things as they are ... but there is equally a power to see things as they might be.

Love is a reciprocal torture.

How much the more in judging of the human heart should we distrust all fashionable airs and graces, all tricks and smartness, learnt only to please the outward gaze

Suspicion cleaves to the dark side of things.

One of the hardest things to believe is that anyone will abandon the effort to escape a charge of murder. It is extremely important to suspend disbelief on that. If you don't, the story is spoiled.

There is only one purpose in hand-to-hand combat, and that is to kill. Never face an enemy with the idea of knocking him out. The chances are extremely good that he will kill you.