I believe the process of going from confusion to understanding is a precious, even emotional, experience that can be the foundation of self-confidence.

In the far, far future, essentially all matter will have returned to energy. But because of the enormous expansion of space, this energy will be spread so thinly that it will hardly ever convert back to even the lightest particles of matter. Instead, a faint mist of light will fall for eternity through an ever colder and quieter cosmos.

You should never be surprised by or feel the need to explain why any physical system is in a high entropy state.

There may be many Big Bangs that happened at various and far-flung locations, each creating its own swelling, spatial expanse, each creating a universe - our universe being the result of only one of those Big Bangs.

My emotional investment is in finding truth. If string theory is wrong, I'd like to have known that yesterday. But if we can show it today or tomorrow, fantastic.

Sometimes attaining the deepest familiarity with a question is our best substitute for actually having the answer.

Most scientists like to operate in the context of economy. If you don't need an explanatory principle, don't invoke it.