I don't recall any interest in science in particular. It came later in college.

I tell students that the opportunities I had were a result of having a good educational background. Education is what allows you to stand out.

Don't be afraid to reach for the stars

What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.

It's fun to work the robotic arm in part because it's really a team effort.

Education is what allows you to stand out

Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives.

I feel very privileged. But what I really hope for young people is that they find a career they’re passionate about, something that’s challenging and worthwhile.

We are involved in technology development for, you know, missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

That's what we want to do here at Johnson Space Center. I think what we have always brought to NASA and brought to the country is trying to push the boundaries, trying to go to the next level.

I realized how important it was to know something about aviation, and it was something I was interested in, so I followed my brother's footsteps and obtained my pilot's license.

I didn't know the answers, but I could feel that the things that gave life meaning came from a place within and from the nurturing of values like tolerance, charity, and community.

Not to be the salt and light on earth is to lack understanding

Maybe princes aren’t real, ” Sada said. Her eyes were crafty and sad at the same time. “But monsters are.” She opened her mouth wide and showed Azhar the wildflowers sitting on her tongue.

As Irving Good realised in 1965, machines with superhuman intelligence could repeatedly improve their design even further, triggering what Vernor Vinge called a 'singularity.'

If I'm dancing, or teaching, or having a family I would want to live life to the fullest as possible.

The only pain in pleasure is the pleasure of the pain.

"What are you doing here anyway?" "'Here' as in your bedroom or 'here' as in the great spiritual question of our purpose here on this planet?"

The point of philosophy, as I see it, is to change thinking, and thereby to change the conversation.

What America needs is a good five-cent cigar.

The more riots that come out of our college campuses, the better the world for tomorrow.