“It takes sixty-five thousand errors before you are qualified to make a rocket.”

Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.

Conquering the universe one has to solve two problems: gravity and red tape. We could have mastered gravity.

The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.

Our sun is one of a 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living thing in that enormous immensity.

A good engineer gets stale very fast if he doesn’t keep his hands dirty.

My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?

All one can really leave one’s children is what’s inside their heads. Education, in other words, and not earthly possessions, is the ultimate legacy, the only thing that cannot be taken away.

Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me-and continues to teach me-strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace.

For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all.

Man is not made for space. But with the help of biologists and medical doctors, he can be prepared and accommodated.

I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.

We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.

It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet.

For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.

Man belongs wherever he wants to go – and he’ll do plenty well when he gets there.

We should remember that science exists only because there are people, and its concepts exist only in the minds of men. Behind these concepts lies the reality which is being revealed to us, but only by the grace of God.

Wrapt up in error is the human mind, And human bliss is ever insecure; Know we what fortune yet remains behind? Know we how long the present shall endure?

It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favor of that which is old.

Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase.

Who would enjoy a life of no runs, no hits, no errors?

Errors like straws upon the surface flow, Who would search for pearls to be grateful for often must dive below.

The smallest errors are always the best.

There is no original truth, only original error.

Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.