A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those worth committing.
I think humor is a very serious thing. I use it as a way of weakening the reader's defenses so that I can more easily take him to something more.
Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.
It has been generally the custom of writers on natural history to take the habits and instincts of animals as the fixed point, and to consider their structure and organization as specially adapted to be in accordance with them.
To those who have chosen the profession of medicine, a knowledge of chemistry, and of some branches of natural history, and, indeed, of several other departments of science, affords useful assistance.
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist.
The history of exploration has never been driven by exploration. But Columbus himself was a discoverer. So was Magellan. But the people who wrote checks were not. They had other motivations.
I am regularly asked what the average Internet user can do to ensure his security. My first answer is usually 'Nothing; you're screwed'.
Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months.
The Internet is not just one thing, it's a collection of things - of numerous communications networks that all speak the same digital language.
I hate the thought of my children being glued to a screen. Children only play on computers all day because their parents let them.
I think computers are the ultimate writing tool. I'm a very slow writer, so I appreciate it every day.
When I was growing up, my parents were almost involved in various volunteer things. My dad was head of Planned Parenthood. And it was very controversial to be involved with that.
A liberal education... frees a man from the prison-house of his class, race, time, place, background, family and even his nation.
Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life.
I go through major crises every few months, but then I have great peaks of belief and creativity. I'm a weird kind of animal.
But if you listen to great piano players, both classical and jazz, there's a huge range of dynamics and colors and emotional expression that's possible with the instrument.
I wrote a great deal... but very little of any importance; there are not more than four of five papers which I can still remember with some satisfaction.
One of the great challenges of modern cosmology is to discover what the geometry of the universe really is.
Whence come I and whither go I? That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us. Science has no answer to it.
