Theorists write all the popular books on science: Heinz Pagels, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, et al. And why not? They have all that spare time.

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

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

A theoretical physicist can spend his entire lifetime missing the intellectual challenge of experimental work, experiencing none of the thrills and dangers - the overhead crane with its ten-ton load, the flashing skull and crossbones and danger, radioactivity signs. A theorist's only real hazard is stabbing himself with a pencil while attacking a bug that crawls out of his calculations.

I started out as a molecules kid. In high school and early college I loved chemistry, but I gradually shifted toward physics, which seemed cleaner - odorless, in fact.

Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money.

Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.