One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural.

Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.

Science moves with the spirit of an adventure characterized both by youthful arrogance and by the belief that the truth, once found, would be simple as well as pretty.

Knowing "why" (an idea) is more important than learning "what" (the fact).

It's necessary to be slightly underemployed if you are to do something significant.

No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?

We're not all equal, it's simply not true. That isn't science.

Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them.

Our goal should be to understand our differences.

The way to do great science is to stay away from subjects that are overpopulated, and go to the frontiers.

Never be the brightest person in the room.

Success comes not from having certainty, but being able to live with uncertainty.

Life is like a painting, seems smooth and glorious but you can see its dullness when you are near it.

People who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger.

I just write the sort of book that I would enjoy reading myself, a book that is both scholarly and recreates the experience of people at that time.

Fitness isn’t about building a better body. It’s about building a better life.

We are all dying of life.

Threats alone, are the weapons of the threatened man.

I've certainly never helped anybody save the day, in any capacity. If anybody is going to understand making a few mistakes, it's me.

The British tourist is always happy abroad as long as the natives are waiters.

The genius of a folk melody or story is not the feeling that it's original but quite the opposite - the feeling that it has existed all along.