Exploration by real people inspires us.

Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.

In the last 200 years the population of our planet has grown exponentially, at a rate of 1.9% per year. If it continued at this rate, with the population doubling every 40 years, by 2600 we would all be standing literally shoulder to shoulder.

If any one of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as we know it could not exist.

Then we shall... be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason - for then we would know the mind of God.

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.

I don't want to write an autobiography because I would become public property with no privacy left.