I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.

There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.

We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

A stars rich in europium; of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.

Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.

The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work.