The equation of evolution with progress represents our strongest cultural impediment to a proper understanding of this greatest biological revolution in the history of human thought.

[Evolution is] one of the best documented, most compelling and exciting concepts in all of science.

Our current drug crisis is a tragedy born of a phony system of classification. For reasons that are little more than accidents of history, we have divided a group of nonfood substances into two categories: items purchasable for supposed pleasure (such as alcohol), and illicit drugs.

... each with its own beauty, and each with a story to tell.

Death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

How did scientists get money in the past? They were either lucky and independently wealthy, like Darwin, or they had patrons, like Galileo. Universities or governments have become patrons only in the last few generations. Many of the great scientists of the past were in debt to their patrons in the same sense that modern scientists are influenced by what their granting agencies want.

Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism--and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.