I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.

With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.

I do not believe in free will. Schopenhauer's words: 'Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills,' accompany me in all situations throughout my life and reconcile me with the actions of others, even if they are rather painful to me. This awareness of the lack of free will keeps me from taking myself and my fellow men too seriously as acting and deciding individuals, and from losing my temper.

The truth of a theory is in your mind, not in your eyes.

About Newton: Nature to him was an open book, whose letters he could read without effort.

What use are socks? They only produce holes.

The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent and creative imagination.