Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense the stirring of a breeze.

The Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of mind - each convinced that it alone had a monopoly on the truth and therefore eager for the state to impose this truth on others.

In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.

Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine the widest range of opinions, to be ruthlessly self-critical. Science is a collective enterprise with the error-correction machinery often running smoothly.

We live at a moment when our relationships to each other, and to all other beings with whom we share this planet, are up for grabs.

How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact visiting other worlds

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.