A wise man in China asked his gardener to plant a shrub. The gardener objected that it only flowered once in a hundred years. "In that case," said the wise man, "plant it immediately." [On the importance of fundamental research.]

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.

Science is a collection of stories, linking characters worthy of notice.

The eye searches for shapes. It searches for a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Reality is no less precious if it presents itself to someone else. All are discoverers, and if we disenfranchise any, all suffer.

Instead, in the absence of respect for human rights, science and its offspring technology have been used in this century as brutal instruments for oppression.

Idealism is the highest form of reason.