The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.

Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.

It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.

Biology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being.

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.

We haven't been able yet to determine in terms of genes what makes a human being a human and not another mammal.

Three billion bases of DNA sequence can be put on a single compact disc and one will be able to pull a CD out of one's pocket and say, 'Here is a human being; it's me!'

The community as a whole doesn't listen patiently to critics who adopt alternative viewpoints. Although the great lesson of history is that knowledge develops through the conflict of viewpoints.

Early on, it's good to develop the ability to write. Learning to write is a useful exercise, even if what you're writing about is not that relevant.

The human's place in the universe will be set in the scheme of evolution, the product of our biological inheritance.

We are embedded in a biological world and related to the organisms around us.

Pain is awesome I like it, to see myself scared is awesome to see how people get killed just makes me happy.

And we, from within the sigh of the trees, and the soft moss underfoot, and the calling of night birds, watched him as he watched, gazing where he should not.

St Thomas (Aqinas) loved books and lived on books... When asked for what he thanked God most, he answered simply, ‘I have understood every page I ever read’.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

Traveling is so complicated. There are so many people everywhere. I make my best journeys on my couch.

If I do hit that rope and do a hop, skip and a jump and get up as high as I can, I'm just going to hold my breath, because I know i'm going to hear all kinds of scar tissue popping.

You have to be true to the game you're covering, whether its being lite at times - I certainly try to be that way - but it is limiting because you're fitting it in around what's going on in the game.

Everything we do we choose. So what is there to regret? You are the person you chose to be.

I find that I put my body in my work when I am at a particularly difficult or joyous point because I want to feel that moment.

I'm not that in control of myself that I could be specific about exactly the way I'm doing everything as it happens. I'm just trying my best