Scientific understanding is often beautiful, a profoundly aesthetic experience which gives pleasure not unlike the reading of a great poem.

I was never very good at exams, having a poor memory and finding the examination process rather artificial, and there never seemed to be enough time to follow up things that really interested me.

I was by far the youngest of the family, and at times it was like being an only child.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

My parents were neither wealthy nor academic, but we lived comfortably and they were always extremely supportive of my academic efforts and aspirations, both at school and university.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

This possibility bothered me as I thought it was not advisable to remain in one academic environment, and the long dark winters in Edinburgh could be rather dismal.

I am still a keen mountain walker and an enthusiastic glider pilot.

During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky.

After an extensive interview he arranged for my weaknesses in foreign languages to be over-looked and so I started a Biology degree at Birmingham in 1967.

It has been a privilege to pursue knowledge for its own sake and to see how it might help mankind in more practical ways.

That lack of programmability is probably what ultimately will doom vi. It can't extend its domain.

Virtually every agnostic lives like an atheist, living completely irreligious lives

A mantra is like meeting the Buddha or Bodhisattva himself.

...the painful intensity of my sensations, even when they're happy ones; the blissful intensity of my sensations, even when they're sad.

The next Christ will perhaps be a female Christ.

Whenever serious art loses track of its roots in the vernacular, then it begins to atrophy.

He who offers God a second place offers Him no place.

Keep your happiness where it can't be hurt: in Christ.

We shouldn't need riot police at schools.

Necessary preparations have been discussed and taken for the complete and fundamental elimination of this concern, which occupies an important place in the exalted state's list of vital issues.