There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don't come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.

The human brain, then, is the most complicated organization of matter that we know.

All of a sudden, space isn't friendly. All of a sudden, it's a place where people can die. . . . Many more people are going to die. But we can't explore space if the requirement is that there be no casualties; we can't do anything if the requirement is that there be no casualties.

There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.

As artists and traders in medieval cities began to form organizations, they instituted tough initiation ceremonies. Journeymen in Bergen, Norway, were shoved down a chimney, thrown three times into the sea, and soundly whipped. Such rites made belonging to the guild or corporation more precious to those who were accepted, and survived.

There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.

If a conclusion is not poetically balanced, it cannot be scientifically true.