Now times had changed, and the inherited wisdom of the past had become folly.

The creation of wealth is certainly not to be despised, but in the long run the only human activities really worthwhile are the search for knowledge, and the creation of beauty. This is beyond argument, the only point of debate is which comes first.

Getting information from the internet is like getting a glass of water from the Niagara Falls.

I sometimes think that the universe is a machine designed for the perpetual astonishment of astronomers.

This is the first age that's ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one.

If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they can't be very important gods.

The choice, as Wells once said, is the Universe-or nothing. . . . The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close. Humanity will have turned its back upon the still untrodden heights and will be descending again the long slope that stretches, across a thousand million years of time, down to the shores of the primeval sea.