The definition of a stupid thing is something that if you do everything right, you still get hurt. Fire-eating and love are stupid things.
Setting clear goals and finding measures that will mark progress toward them can improve the human condition.
Does the universe exist only for me? It's possible. If so, it's sure going well for me, I must admit.
If we can find approaches that meet the needs of the poor in ways that generate profits for business and votes for politicians, we will have found a sustainable way to reduce inequity in the world. This task is open-ended. It can never be finished. But a conscious effort to answer this challenge will change the world.
Solutions to all biological problems are greatly advanced by the sequencing work and the new tools that are created.
To be a good professional engineer, always start to study late for exams because it teaches you how to manage time and tackle emergencies.
Humanitys greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity, reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
Wonder [said Socrates] is very much the affection of a philosopher; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than this.
It would be a huge mistake to abandon democracy promotion. Peaceful political change has been enormously successful in the past years in Eastern European countries as well as in countries like South Korea, South Africa, Chile and Indonesia. However, if possible, the use of force is something to avoid except in cases where genocide is threatened, like Bosnia or Libya or with regimes that threaten our security, like the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.
It's rather an exhilarating feeling. It's 6 or 7 when you get up and go out into the fields wearing your Wellingtons or high boots. You know that at this very hour half the nation does the same thing, which gives you, with the benefit of hindsight, a satisfaction in doing those things, too, a knowledge, a sense of the nation. I was a city boy until then.
That is the whole trouble with being a heretic. One usually must think out everything for oneself.