Science fiction made me aware of how big and strange the universe was, leaving aside the whole question of aliens.

For us scientists, on the other wing, life is not quite so simple. Because we learn the unknown. Unlike, hah-hah, our esteemed friends the philosophers, who learn the unknowable.

The real world is far too complex and unpredictable to make something like the idea of humanity controlling its own evolution or engineering itself - well, I wouldn't say impossible but it should be approached with a degree of caution.

I don't really believe in the Devil, but if the Devil is the Father of Lies, then he certainly invented the Internet.

All life is a struggle for existence. Why should it cease to be a struggle if it spreads among the stars?

It had long been established in the Civil Worlds that public business was to be transparent, and personal business opaque; but it was as well recognised that the two would always have a turbulent interface, and that the clique, the caucus, and the conspiracy were as ineradicable features of civility as the council or the committee.

I'm a long-term optimist, and I don't think the problems with our society are from being overly optimistic.