Wisdom lies in understanding our limitations.

Science is a way of thinking that helps you not to fool yourself.

One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.

The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

I'd like the [Cosmos] series to be so visually stimulating that somebody who isn't even interested in the concepts will just watch for the effects. And I'd like people who are prepared to do some thinking to be really stimulated.

You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares.

There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any.