I don't think it would be a good idea for scientists to have more political power. Scientists as a group are more inclined to try to derive an ought from an is, than the population at large.

Quantum computation is a distinctively new way of harnessing nature. It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be performed in collaboration between parallel universes.

Feeling insignificant because the universe is large has exactly the same logic as feeling inadequate for not being a cow.

It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment.

Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...

Every problem that is interesting is also soluble.

Base metals can be transmuted into gold by stars, and by intelligent beings who understand the processes that power stars, but by nothing else in the universe.

The whole [scientific] process resembles biological evolution. A problem is like an ecological niche, and a theory is like a gene or a species which is being tested for viability in that niche.

No precautions, and no precautionary principle, can avoid problems that we do not yet foresee. We need a stance of problem-fixing, not just problem-avoidance.

The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.

Humans may or may not have cosmic significance, and if they do, it will be by hitching a ride on the objective centrality of knowledge in the cosmic scheme of things.

Courage is important but it shouldn’t be used in making impulsive decisions or taking uncalculated actions.

I fear living a life where I could have accomplished something and didn't. That's what I fear. I don't fear death.

Technology proposes itself as the architect of our intimacies.

It is not your environment, it is you- the quality of your mind, the integrity of your soul and the determination of your will that will decide your future and shape your life.

A liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest.

There are two types of grandmothers - the ones who feel relieved when they hear the first 'Let's go home' and the ones who feel hurt. The latter are definitely in the minority.

Nothing generates more heat in the government than the question of who is chosen to participate in important meetings.

I don't think of my life as a career. I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That's not a career - it's a life!

[Woman Walks Ahead] is from me being a very bizarre child. From the age of about 8 to the age of about 15, I was obsessed with Native Americans.

Always be thou prepared, and so live that death may never find thee unprepared.