We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock.

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.

Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.

We can always take but never give.

Humans are very good at dreaming, although you'd never know it from your television.

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.