Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

You have to know the past to understand the present.

Open adoption, when it works, is fabulous. But when it goes wrong, it's so traumatizing for everybody.

The martyrs to vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in endurance and in number.

Our leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid.

We are like lutes once held by God. Being away from his warm body fully explains this constant yearning.

Having red hair is never good when you're a kid. I was picked on a lot and didn't have a lot of friends. But I think that gave me a thick skin and helped make me a better person.

You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world.

No one can listen to your body for you... To grow and heal, you have to take responsibility for listening to it yourself.

Life is really a blessing to be able to do what you love everyday, to learn about yourself. For me it's been about becoming a woman, and I've really enjoyed that experience.

This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough

If I ever had to be on an amusement park ride, I probably wouldn't get on one; I'm not a very adventurous person!