To me, being an intellectual doesn't mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them.

There must be something unique about man because otherwise, evidently, the ducks would be lecturing about Konrad Lorenz, and the rats would be writing papers about B. F. Skinner.

It is not the business of science to inherit the earth, but to inherit the moral imagination; because without that, man and beliefs and science will perish together.

Power is the by-product of understanding.

Every judgment in science stands on the edge of error, and is personal.

We gain our ends only with the laws of nature; we control her only by understanding her laws.

Science is the acceptance of what works and the rejection of what does not. That needs more courage than we might think.