Arguments from authority carry little weight – authorities have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.

The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.

By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang.

What counts is not what sounds plausible, not what we would like to believe, not what one or two witnesses claim, but only what is supported by hard evidence rigorously and skeptically examined. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no.

The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.

The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature.