I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.

All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion is unrequited. Surveys suggest that some 95% of Americans are "scientifically illiterate." That's...the same fraction...of slaves who were illiterate before the Civil War.

Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Maxwell's Equations have had a greater impact on human history than any ten presidents.