It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.

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

[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.

As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky.

There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.