Discussing the possibilities of extraterrestrial life: I would love it even if they were short, sullen, grumpy and sexually obsessed. But there just isn't any good evidence.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

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.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

You have to know the past to understand the present.

Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.

In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. P. 25

God, I want what you want more than I want what I want.

I don't think about relatability (when writing), I think about the heart of the character.

Be constantly committed to prayer or to reading [Scripture]; by praying, you speak to God, in reading, God speaks to you.

And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?

Joy is a spiritual element that gives vicissitudes unity and significance.

History does not repeat itself except in the minds of those who do not know history.

The ability to defend yourself is a basic necessity like food and water. We exempt food and water from the sales tax.

A dyslexic man walks into a bra.