It's just plain learning something that you didn't know. There is a real aesthetic experience in being dumbfounded.

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.

I guess we all have some of these - memories like artillery shells, fired at close range.

Jesus Christ is the most outstanding person who has ever lived on planet earth

It's really best not to tell people when you feel bad. Growing up is about keeping secrets, and pretending everything is fine.

Ask yourself - Where do I want to be one year from today? Personal growth is a choice.

They showed each other that it was alright for their hearts to come out and play; that it was alright to feel close to someone; that love didn't always end in heartbreak.

I do not deny that I have made drawings and watercolors of an erotic nature. But they are always works of art. Are there no artists who have done erotic pictures?

Humans do not engage in activities that are meaningless. If you think you see people doing things you find meaningless, look again and try to understand what the activities mean for them.

And when you love a book, commit one glorious sentence of it-perhaps your favorite sentence-to memory. That way you won't forget the language of the story that moved you to tears.

A chemist who is not a physicist is nothing at all.

The whole exploitation thing is funny, too. Exploitation is the nature of the world, isn't it?