The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

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.

It would be, for me, mere pointless pleasure, an illusion of order for this one frail, foolish, flicker-flash in the long dull fall of eternity.

Legislation and adjudication must follow, and conform to, the progress of society.

Democracy acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle differences peacefully. Authoritarian governments see criticism of their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat.

It's disgraceful that year after year, Congress has bowed to the tobacco lobby and refused to act.

Cocaine made me talk forever. The most nonsensical rubbish that you could ever think of.

The grand canyon which yawns between the writer's concept of what he wants to capture in words and what comes through is a cruel abyss.

The internet to me is kind of like a black hole, and I never really go on it.

I buy my shoes a size too small. I like the way it feels.

Oh, I suppose my wife and I will open a bottle of champagne with another couple.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.