I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don't know why I do things.

[Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science.

The future will be no primrose path. It will have its own problems. Some will be the secular problems of the past, giant flowers of evil blossoming at last to their own destruction. Others will be wholly new.

I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.

Man armed with science is like a baby with a box of matches.

The world shall perish not for lack of wonders, but for lack of wonder

Shelley and Keats were the last English poets who were at all up to date in their chemical knowledge.