That kind of skeptical, questioning, "don't accept what authority tells you" attitude of science - is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other.

In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie.

[One's] inability to invalidate your hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true.

The open road still softly calls.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

On the day that we do discover that we are not alone, our society may begin to evolve and transform in some incredible and wondrous new ways.

We are the custodians of life's meaning.