In Harvest of Stars, there is this notion, not original with me of course, that it will become possible to download at least the basic aspects of a human personality into a machine program.

Anybody can find infinite Mandelbrot figures in his navel.

I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.

We live with our archetypes, but can we live in them?

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants.

A man isn't really alive till he has something bigger than himself and his own little happiness, for which he'd gladly die.

Timidity can be as dangerous as rashness.

A fanatic is a man who, when he's lost sight of his purpose, redoubles his effort.

He had seen too much of the cosmos to have any great faith in man's ability to understand it.

If we knew exactly what to expect throughout the Solar System, we would have no reason to explore it.

What five books would I like to be remembered for? Well... Tau Zero, I like that one especially. It was somewhat of a tour de force, and I think it got across what I was trying for.

We must accept finite disappointment but we must never lose infinite hope.

If you refuse to see Superman Returns this summer, what you're saying about yourself is: I heart Al Qaeda.

Skills are really just circuits in your brain

The thing I can't resist is a pork pie. That's my idea of a lovely treat.

Innovation is a discipline not a lottery... It comes from the combination of two elements within my control: hard work and openmindedness.

My fear is that the global consumption of oil is going to increase, but European oil consumption has already reached its peak. The amount of oil available globally, I think, has already peaked.

Let man's soul be a sphere, and then, in this, The intelligence that moves, devotion is.

A dream...I was trying to explain to St. Peter, and was doing it in the German tongue, because I didn't want to be too explicit.

To extraordinary circumstance we must apply extraordinary remedies.

America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain.