If you find life on Europa [Jupiter's moon], like, what would you call it? Would it be, like, Europeans?

(Space programs are) a force operating on educational pipelines that stimulate the formation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians... They're the ones that make tomorrow come. The foundations of economies... issue forth from investments we make in science and technology.

I think the material that inspires artists is the fabric of the soul of civilization.

Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival.

Let's invent a new tomorrow and then make it happen. Let's invent the city of tomorrow, the home of tomorrow, the transportation of tomorrow.

Claiming there is no other life in the universe is like scooping up some water, looking at the cup and claiming there are no whales in the ocean.

There's no greater sign of the failure of the American educational system than the extent to which Americans are distracted by the possibility that Earth might end on December 21, 2012. It's a profound absence of awareness of the laws of physics and how nature works. So they're missing some science classes in their training in high school or in college that would empower them to understand and to judge when someone else is basically just full of it. Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.