Ants are so much like human beings as to be an embarrasment...They do everything but watch television.

Given any new technology for transmitting information, we seem bound to use it for great quantities of small talk. We are only saved by music from being overwhelmed by nonsense.

Animals have genes for altruism, and those genes have been selected in the evolution of many creatures because of the advantage they confer for the continuing survival of the species.

In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.

The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance

Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.

The most solid piece of scientific truth I know of is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature.