Modern economics and the welfare state borrowed heavily on the future.

It was getting the results that made science worth doing; the accolades were a thin, secondary pleasure.

Once you've grown up in space, moving on means moving out, not going back to Earth. Nobody wants to be a groundpounder.

When the chemistry is right, all the experiments work.

(Crank theories) always violated the first rule of a scientific model: they were uncheckable.

People fear their hidden selves, afraid that they will burst out.

Any technology that does not appear magical is insufficiently advanced.

In a tough situation, don't avoid acting just because it's easier or comfortable. Don't lapse into a passive state. People who give up, die.

To shine is better than to reflect.

Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available

Science is like literature, a continuing dialog among diverse and conflicting voices, no one ever wholly right or wholly wrong, but a steady conversation forever provisional and personal and living.

Try to be the best even if you can't be the best, you will be among the betters.

In truth, there is no such thing as an “intuitive boundary” of a sensory state. That most philosophers take such states as brain-bound is not an intuition, but a prejudice.

Mama says that, happiness is from magic rays of sunshine that come down when you're feeling blue.

I spent more time in America, but I developed a very English sense of humour. I clicked into it deeply with Peter Sellers, who is still probably my favourite comedian.

Part of my spiritual work is learning to live with the knowledge that we can't protect our loved ones from pain and heartache.

Love must not touch the marrow of the soul. Our affections must be breakable chains that we can cast them off or tighten them.

I learned how to make jokes because I wanted to give people as much fun as they did, and I guess I did, too.

Worse than bad reviews is to be ignored.

Nothing so demoralizes the forces of the soul as fear. Only as we realize the presence of the Lord does fear give place to faith.

In societies no less than individuals, acknowledging our limitations may ultimately be more humane than denying them.