Astronomy is not the apex of science or of invention. But it is a test of the cast of temperament and mind that underlies a culture.

But nature - that is, biological evolution - has not fitted man to any specific environment. On the contrary, ... he has a rather crude survival kit; and yet -this is the paradox of the human condition - one that fits him to all environments. Among the multitude of animals which scamper, fly, burrow and swim around us, man is the only one who is not locked into his environment. His imagination, his reason, his emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible for him not to accept the environment but to change it.

Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.

There are three creative ideas which, each in its turn, have been central to science. They are the idea of order, the idea of causes, and the idea of chance.

Knowledge is not a loose-leaf notebook of facts. Above all, it is a responsibility for the integrity of what we are, primarily of what we are as ethical creatures.

Whether our work is art or science or the daily work of society, it is only the form in which we explore our experience which is different.

The central opposition between magic and science is the opposition between power and knowledge.