So important are insects and other land-dwelling arthropods that if all were to disappear, humanity probably could not last more than a few months.

Search until you find a passion and go all out to excel in its expression.

Science is not marginal. Like art, it is a universal possession of humanity, and scientific knowledge has become a vital part of our species' repertory. It comprises what we know of the material world with reasonable certainty. . . . Thanks to science and technology, access to factual information of all kinds is rising exponentially.

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.

The second half of the 20th century was a golden age of molecular biology, and it was one of the golden ages of the history of science. Molecular biology was so successful and made such a powerful alliance with the medical scientists that the two together just flourished. And they continue to flourish.

Ants have the most complicated social organization on earth next to humans.