He [Democritus] is probably best known for two of the most scientifically intuitive quotes ever uttered by an ancient: 'Nothing exists except atoms and space, everything else is opinion'.

The sequence of theorist, experimenter, and discovery has occasionally been compared to the sequence of farmer, pig, truffle. The farmer leads the pig to an area where there might be truffles. The pig searches diligently for the truffles. Finally, he locates one, and just as he is about to devour it, the farmer snatches it away.

One of the major ingredients for professional success in science is luck. Without this, forget it.

My children have often asked me why I never received a Nobel Prize. I used to tell them it was because the Nobel committee couldn’t make up its mind which of my projects to recognize.

Neutrinos ... win the minimalist contest: zero charge, zero radius, and very possibly zero mass.

I'm so old I can remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God.