Maxwell is the physicist's physicist.

Scientists tend to risk theories they admire

Theology is unnecessary.

I think [contacting an alien civilization] would be a disaster. The extraterrestrials would probably be far in advance of us. The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet is not very happy, and they were the same species. I think we should keep our heads low.

The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.