The body of science is not, as it is sometimes thought, a huge coherent mass of facts, neatly arranged in sequence, each one attached to the next by a logical string. In truth, whenever we discover a new fact it involves the elimination of old ones. We are always, as it turns out, fundamentally in error.
Lewis ThomasI will confess that I have no more sense of what goes on in the mind of mankind than I have for the mind of an ant.
Lewis ThomasSelfness is an essential fact of life. The thought of nonselfness, precise sameness is terrifying.
Lewis ThomasWe habitually engage in meddling with nature. Until this century most of this meddling was good. Witness the preservation of the European countryside. But since then we've smoked it up and littered it and dumped too much in too many waters. I don't think it's our privilege to behave this way.
Lewis Thomas