The history of mathematics is a history of horrendously difficult problems being solved by young people too ignorant to know that they were impossible.

You ask: what is the meaning or purpose of life? I can only answer with another question: do you think we are wise enough to read God's mind?

The greatest unsolved mysteries are the mysteries of our existence as conscious beings in a small corner of a vast universe.

If you want to have a program for moving out into the universe, you have to think in centuries not in decades.

A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.

Technology must be guided and driven by ethics if it is to do more than provide new toys for the rich.

The idea that global warming is the most important problem facing the world is total nonsense and is doing a lot of harm.

Unfortunately the global warming hysteria, as I see it, is driven by politics more than by science.

In the end it is how you fight, as much as why you fight, that makes your cause good or bad.

So long as you have courage and a sense of humor, it is never too late to start life afresh.

Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.

The parties with the most gain never show up on the battlefield.

For Aristotle, it's not enough simply to act in accordance with the reason once in a while. We must cultivate habits of virtue that develop into a firmly established moral character over a lifetime.

Tomorrow your reputation has to be made again.

Whenever you are dealing with someone or something of unknown value the first one who places a value on it establishes its worth.

I often teach a graduate theater seminar on Greek tragedy in performance. I usually begin by saying that no matter what technological advances occur, the wisdom of these plays will never be obsolete.

I just wrapped 'Eclipse' yesterday and the last scene we shot is probably my favorite thus far. I finally got to tell my story, in a very gentle yet elaborate way.

America comes from a flawed but wonderful idea. Many great things have sprung forth over the past few hundred years but there were deep issues in the beginning that now are starting to show up.

No wound is worse than counterfeited love.

I just eat life... I engage in life.

I don't like the masculine style, jeans. I like issey miyake... and black dresses.