While our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have, through our brains, a much richer opportunity to blaze new behavioral and cultural pathways on short timescales.

Don't judge everyone else by your own limited experience.

There are as many atoms in one molecule of DNA as there are stars in a typical galaxy.

Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children.

All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking: a way of skeptically interrogating the universe.