Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

And you are made of a hundred trillion cells. We are, each of us, a multitude.

The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars. Every star may be a sun to someone.

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

It is said that men may not be the dreams of the god, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.

We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands.

When Americans shoot movies they aim at the entire planet. When the French make movies, they aim at Paris.

Actually being funny is mostly telling the truth about things.

Whatever spiteful fools may say, Each jealous ranting yelper, No woman ever went astray, Without a man to help her

[When asked if she believed in "women's lib":] Not really. Not when I see what most of them look like.

When men enter into the state of marriage, they stand nearest to God.

The only things that are important in life are the things you remember.

People think we have coasted the last four years. We fought, we had a lot of battles. We've always had to battle.

If it is your duty to croak like the toad, then go ahead! And with all your might! Make them hear you!

My parents were very loving, but disciplinarians.

My friend Megan Holken is a nutritionist. I have spent some time at her home upstate in Sharon Springs, where she told me how to eat right and cook right.