If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions.

I would be very ashamed of my civilization if we did not try to find out if there is life in outer space.

Books tap the wisdom of our species -- the greatest minds, the best teachers -- from all over the world and from all our history. And they're patient.

All of us cherish our beliefs. They are, to a degree, self-defining. When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well-based - or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven't thought of, or demonstrates that we've swept key underlying assumptions under the rug - it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. It feels like a personal assault.

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.

The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.