“One good test is worth a thousand expert opinions.”

By the year 2000 we will undoubtedly have a sizable operation on the Moon, we will have achieved a manned Mars landing and it’s entirely possible we will have flown with men to the outer planets.

If we continue at this leisurly pace, we will have to pass Russian customs when we land on the moon.

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.

Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.

Experts often possess more data than judgment.

Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

If a person will spend one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject.

For it is the duty of an astronomer to compose the history of the celestial motions through careful and expert study.

I’m convinced that democracy cannot be exported from one country to another, like you cannot expert revolutions, ideology.

History is a matter of debate, it should be left in the hands of historians and experts.