I am just through with a summer, and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal.
People have to learn sometimes not only how much the heart, but how much the head, can bear.
The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.
The phrase ‘popular science’ has in itself a touch of absurdity. That knowledge which is popular is not scientific.
My parents regarded school teachers as higher beings, as did many immigrants.
I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set.
Ego is the immediate dictate of human consciousness.
We enjoy sailing small boats, two of which I have designed and built myself.
Do not suffer any man to baptize or minister unto you, unless God has spoken unto him by the voice of his servants, and authorized him to minister in his name.
For the greater beauty of the instrument, the balls representing the planets are to be of considerable bigness; but so contrived, that they may be taken off at pleasure, and others, much smaller, and fitter for some purposes, put in their places.
But the beauty of Einstein's equations, for example, is just as real to anyone who's experienced it as the beauty of music. We've learned in the 20th century that the equations that work have inner harmony.
But my most favourite pursuit, after my daily exertions at the Foundry, was Astronomy. There were frequently clear nights when the glorious objects in the Heavens were seen in most attractive beauty and brilliancy.
It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress.
The discovery and investigation of life on other planets is likely to change many of our ideas about how life arose on the Earth and even what is life and its natural development.
The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.
The education of my brother and myself was of paramount importance to my parents, and in addition to their strong encouragement, they were prepared to make any sacrifice to further our intellectual development.
Reading history, one rarely gets the feeling of the true nature of scientific development, in which the element of farce is as great as the element of triumph.
Science fiction is the great opportunity to speculate on what could happen. It does give me, as a futurist, scenarios.
Music doesn't have to have lyrics; it doesn't have to be a particular type of music - it has the ability to bring out really strong and hopefully good emotional reactions in people.
Early on, it's good to develop the ability to write. Learning to write is a useful exercise, even if what you're writing about is not that relevant.
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
