“One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.”

I turned against the left wing because they don’t like genetics, because genetics implies that sometimes in life we fail because we have bad genes. They want all failure in life to be due to the evil system.

If scientists don’t play God, who will?

I have been much blessed.

Knowing “why” (an idea) is more important than learning “what” (the fact).

We’re not all equal, it’s simply not true. That isn’t science.

Biology has at least 50 more interesting years.

One of the greatest gifts science has brought to the world is continuing elimination of the supernatural.

I don’t think we are here for anything. We’re just products of evolution. You can say, “Gee, your life must be pretty bleak if you don’t think there’s a purpose.” But I’m anticipating a good lunch.

The brain, is the most complex thing we have yet discovered in our universe.

There are many people of color who are very talented.

Nothing new that is really interesting comes without collaboration.

Today, the theory of evolution is an accepted fact for everyone but a fundamentalist minority, whose objections are based not on reasoning but on doctrinaire adherence to religious principles.

There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so.

Science moves with the spirit of an adventure characterized both by youthful arrogance and by the belief that the truth, once found, would be simple as well as pretty.

There is only one science, physics: everything else is social work.

Science that leads over the horizon depends on gathering the best minds and enabling them to do what the best minds naturally seek to do: pursue the most thrilling questions of the time.

You have to allow your mind to create and then if you want to censor something and bring it down or point it in a different direction, then you can do it.

My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone.

Be careful what you choose to do consciously, for unless your will is very strong, that is what you may have to do repeatedly and compulsively through the habit-influencing power of the subconscious mind.

Community means that people come together around the table, not just to feed their bodies, but to feed their minds and their relationships.

If you’re ‘stuck’ right now, you’re probably into fear. Get out of there. You’ve already looked both ways. Now cross the street, for heaven sake. The cars have long since gone. The coast is clear. Your only obstacle now is your own mind.

Meditation is a vital way to purify and quiet the mind, thus rejuvenating the body.

Your passion may be hard to spot, so keep an open mind and keep searching.

When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.