Evolution is, as well as smarter than we are, infinitely more callous and cruel, and also capricious.

I appear as a skeptic, who believes that doubt is the great engine, the great fuel of all inquiry, all discovery and all innovation.

The moment of near despair is quite often the moment that precedes courage.

I don't have any terrific self-esteem issues but I do sometimes realise I've been too lucky and that I'm over-praised. It makes me nervous. I have this sense of being overrated.

The faithful believe that certain truths have been 'revealed.' The skeptics and secularists believe that truth is only to be sought by free inquiry and trial and error. Only one of those positions is dogmatic.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent? To the ones that arise from urgent material needs.

The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.