In the attempt to make scientific discoveries, every problem is an opportunity — and the more difficult the problem, the greater will be the importance of its solution.

Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.

[The natural world cleans water, pollinates plants and provides pharmaceuticals, among many other gifts.] Thirty trillion dollars worth of services, scot-free to humanity, every year.

People respect nonfiction but they read novels.

This is the assembly of life that took a billion years to evolve. It has eaten the storms - folded them into its genes - and created the world that created us. It holds the world steady.

We ought to recognize that religious strife is not the consequence of differences among people. It's about conflicts between creation stories.

Individual versus group selection results in a mix of altruism and selfishness, of virtue and sin, among the members of a society.