An organism at war with itself is doomed.
It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.
Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.
I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation.
Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.
My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.
A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
A general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the god portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy much less of a universe.
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature.
My wonder button is being pushed all the time.
You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.
We are, in the most profound sense, children of the Cosmos.
We are one species. We are starstuff.
Cosmos is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It is, in a way, the opposite of Chaos. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things. It conveys awe for the intricate and subtle way in which the universe is put together.
The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work.
Don’t judge everyone else by your own limited experience.
Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.
Science cuts two ways, of course; its products can be used for both good and evil. But there’s no turning back from science. The early warnings about technological dangers also come from science.
A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?