I didn't originally intend on writing a book. I started writing during the day to feel like I was accomplishing something creative.
Much of good science and perhaps all of great science has its roots in fantasy.
True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life.
Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius.
The ideal scientist thinks like a poet and works like a bookkeeper
Humanity, in the desperate attempt to fit 8 billion or more people on the planet and give them a higher standard of living, is at risk of pushing the rest of life off the globe.
If we cannot agree, let us at any rate agree to differ, but let us part as friends.
It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.
The culture cannot evolve faster than the language. The language is the flashlight that shows the path.
I made my money by selling too soon.