You know what's wrong with scientific power? It's a form of inherited wealth. And you know what assholes congenitally rich people are.

In science, the old men are usually wrong. But in politics, the old men are wise, counsel caution, and in the end are often right.

The rules of grammar exist in large part to permit readers and writers to operate from a shared set of expectations.

In my view, our approach to global warming exemplifies everything that is wrong with our approach to the environment. We are basing our decisions on speculation, not evidence. Proponents are pressing their views with more PR than scientific data. Indeed, we have allowed the whole issue to be politicized-red vs blue, Republican vs Democrat. This is in my view absurd. Data aren't political. Data are data. Politics leads you in the direction of a belief. Data, if you follow them, lead you to truth.

I eventually realized that direct experience is the most valuable experience I can have. Western man is so surrounded by ideas, so bombarded with opinions, concepts, and information structures of all sorts, that it becomes difficult to experience anything without the intervening filter of these structures.

I hadn't traveled with the intention of learning about anything except myself. And the real point of all this travel was not what I had come to believe or disbelieve about the wider world, but what I had learned about myself.

There is always a cause for fear. The cause may change over time, but the fear is always with us.