Science is not just a topic we can step around or ignore.

As important as the civil rights movement was, I think what will rise to the top is that we left Earth in that time.

One of the most significant events in our distant past is still perhaps the greatest mystery: the origins of life itself.

I know of no time in human history where ignorance was better than knowledge.

The world, I think, has too many late-night talk shows.

That is a cosmic perspective, that's correct. And in tandem with that, you will never find people who truly grasp the cosmic perspective such as the entire community of astrophysicists leading nations into battle. No, that doesn't happen. When you have a cosmic perspective, there's this little speck called Earth and you say you're going to do what? You're on this side of a line in the sand and you want to kill people for what?

The universe's destiny has very little to do with the near-term destiny of Earth.