I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.

Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.

A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa.

The really important thing is learning how to sceptically question and rely on empirical evidence.

When a person's religious beliefs cause him to deny the evidence of science, or for whom public policy morphs into a battle with the devil, shouldn't that be a subject for discussion and debate?

We now know that we are more insignificant than we ever imagined. If you get rid of everything we see, the universe is essentially the same. We constitute a 1 percent bit of pollution in a universe . . . we are completely irrelevant.

If our species is to survive, our future will probably require outposts beyond our own planet.