The secrets of evolution are death and time-the deaths of enormous numbers of lifeforms that were imperfectly adapted to the environment; and time for a long succession of small mutations.

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.

Every time I converse with you, I feel closer to home

But what is after all the happiness of mere power? There is a greater happiness possible than to be lord of heaven and earth that is the happiness of being truly loved.

We make our customs lightly; once made, like our sins, they grip us in bands of steel; we become the creatures of our creation.

Kindness makes a fellow feel good whether it's being done to him or by him.

There are men who desire power simply for the sake of the happiness it will bring; these belong chiefly to political parties.

I don't believe in sharing my money. If I go out and work my nuts off and make some money, I don't feel that I should have to share it with my community.

If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.

I was always inspired by Sigourney [Weaver]. She's been able to have such beautiful diversity in her career and that's a really impressive thing.

An essential portion of any artist's labor is not creation so much as invocation

Capoeira is a game, it is dance, it is fight, it is of war and it is of peace, it is of culture, of music, it is a portion of things.