Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space.

It's clearly possible for a something to acquire higher intelligence than its ancestors: we evolved to be smarter than our ape-like ancestors, and Einstein was smarter than his parents.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Many people do not like the idea that time has a beginning, probably because it smacks of divine intervention. (The Catholic Church, on the other hand, seized on the big bang model and in 1951 officially pronounced it to be in accordance with the Bible.

The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.

Disability need not be an obstacle to success.

The doctor who diagnosed me with ALS, or motor neuron disease, told me that it would kill me in two or three years.