Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

I thought scientists were going to find out exactly how everything worked, and then make it work better.

Somebody gets into trouble, then gets out of it again. People love that story. They never get tired of it.

That's what is was to be young - to be enthusiastic rather than envious about the good work other people could do.

He had supposed for years that he had no secrets from himself. Here was proof that he had a great big secret somewhere inside, and he could not imagine what it was.

The insane, on occasion, are not without their charms.

How on earth can religious people believe in so much arbitrary, clearly invented balderdash?....The acceptance of a creed, any creed, entitles the acceptor to membership in the sort of artificial extended family we call a congregation. It is a way to fight loneliness. Any time I see a person fleeing from reason and into religion, I think to myself, There goes a person who simply cannot stand being so goddamned lonely anymore.