Cats are a standing rebuke to behavioral scientists wanting to know how the minds of animals work. The mind of a cat is an unscrutable mystery.

It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we all take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is in fact a family resemblance.

The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.

Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.

In real life, every field of science is incomplete, and most of them - whatever the record of accomplishment during the last 200 years - are still in their very earliest stages.

We owe our lives to the sun... How is it, then, that we feel no gratitude?

The greatest single achievement of nature to date was surely the invention of the molecule DNA.

It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.

I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.

Animals have genes for altruism, and those genes have been selected in the evolution of many creatures because of the advantage they confer for the continuing survival of the species.

We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.

Let not miracle be your focus but be strong in diligence which is an eternal virtue.

Human understanding more easily invents new things than new words.

That government is best which governs the least because its people discipline themselves.

It was a storm in a tea cup but in politics we sail in paper boats.

However I dress it up, I was a spy and I am not proud of it.

Owning the intellectual property is like owning land: You need to keep investing in it again and again to get a payoff; you can't simply sit back and collect rent.

What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?

He asked me if I had adequate health insurance.

I was pretty much a minimalist. I liked a lot of black at the time, which is very different from my wardrobe now, because I live in color.

I love working out. I mean, I've been doing it for about 20 years every day of my entire life. So I enjoy working out.