Keep in mind that every single generation before us has worked under the assumption that they possessed all the major tools for understanding the universe, and they were all wrong, without exception.

What we find is that our brains have colossal things happening in them all the time.

Every atom in your body is the same quark in different places at the same moment in time.

Instead of reality being passively recorded by the brain, it is actively constructed by it.

As an undergraduate I majored in British and American literature at Rice University.

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

It turns out your conscious mind - the part you think of as you - is really the smallest part of what’s happening in your brain, and usually the last one in line to find out any information.

There is a looming chasm between what your brain knows and what your mind is capable of accessing.

You are more likely to believe that a statement is true if you have heard it before - whether or not it is actually true.

Love was not specified in the design of your brain; it is merely an endearing algorithm that freeloads on the leftover processing cycles.

We don't really understand most of what's happening in the cosmos. Is there any afterlife? Who knows.

The mistakes of the wise lead them to light. The triumphs of fools lead them to darkness.

The great universal family of men is a utopia worthy of the most mediocre logic.

I use humour a lot. My foundation is tragic, but my appearance is humorous.

The pursuit of the difficult makes men strong

The State's your mother, your father, the totality of your interests. No discipline can be too severe for the man that denies thatby word or deed.

Like a historian, I interpret, select, discard, shape, simplify. Unlike a historian, I make up people's thoughts.

Rumors are the sauce of a dry life.

The time-honored role of the artist [is] to speak truth to power.

My dog doesn't like dogs, and I kind of get where she's coming from; I'm not too keen on people.

Leadership is the intelligent use of power.