Scientists study physical things, then describe them; engineers describe physical things, then build them.

In thinking about nanotechnology today, what's most important is understanding where it leads, what nanotechnology will look like after we reach the assembler breakthrough.

Likewise nanotechnology will, once it gets under way, depend on the tools we have then and our ability to use them, and not on the steps that got us there.

My work at MIT had focused on what we could build in space once we had inexpensive space transportation and industrial facilities in orbit. And this led to various sorts of work in space development.

The basic parts, the start-up molecules, can be supplied in abundance and don't have to be made by some elaborate process. That immediately makes things simpler.

I had been impressed by the fact that biological systems were based on molecular machines and that we were learning to design and build these sorts of things.

On the molecular scale, you find it's reasonable to have a machine that does a million steps per second, a mechanical system that works at computer speeds.

In a sense, artificial intelligence will be the ultimate tool because it will help us build all possible tools.

...Local prohibitions cannot block advances in military and commercial technology... Democratic movements for local restraint can only restrain the world's democracies, not the world as a whole.

Nature draws no line between living and nonliving.

Any powerful technology can be abused.

Living in the moment works sometimes, but when alone, it clouds over your memories and dreams, and those are what I need to survive.

In this walk to freedom, we must, without question obtain hearts of honesty and a tongue of truthfulness.

An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government

The only thing a master can teach is how to learn about yourself. There are no secrets. They are only techniques to waken yourself.

Your dream is a good one. [. . .] The desire that is the very root of life itself: To grow until all the space you can see is part of you, under your control. It's the desire for greatness.

Suggesting I hate people with religion because I hate religion is like suggesting I hate people with cancer because I hate cancer.

Time is not money. Time is worth way more than money.

I came from a real working-class show business family.

All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.

An author's characters do what he wants them to do.