Where do we stand today compared to Greece circa 400 B.C.? Today's experiment-driven 'standard model' is not all that dissimilar to Democritus's speculative [sic] atomic theory.

Theorists write all the popular books on science: Heinz Pagels, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, et al. And why not? They have all that spare time.

Physics isn't a religion. If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money.

The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God.

I sometimes think about the tower at Pisa as the first particle accelerator, a (nearly) vertical linear accelerator that Galileo used in his studies.

Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.

We hope to explain the entire universe in a single, simple formula that you can wear on your T-shirt.

Science should have no less lofty a goal. My ambition is to live to see all of physics reduced to a formula so elegant and simple that it will fit easily on the front of a T-shirt.

My children have often asked me why I never received a Nobel Prize. I used to tell them it was because the Nobel committee couldn’t make up its mind which of my projects to recognize.

I'm so old I can remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

One of the major ingredients for professional success in science is luck. Without this, forget it.

When you have passion, you don't need coffee.

No matter what, I would never let the people who wanted me to break see how much damage they had inflicted.

In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.

It is important to understand that the system of advantage is perpetuated when we do not acknowledge its existence.

Knowledge is rarely enough to spark change; it takes emotion to bring knowledge to a boil.

It takes money to run political campaigns. This is a cancer growing on the soul of our democracy.

My dad didn't want me to play guitar. He played piano, so I chose that. And I ended up loving it

Illinois is a state of suspended animation and the people live in hibernation from Oct. to whenever it ever gets warmer.

She was a dull person, but a sensational invitation to make babies.

I'm most often surrounded by people, so what I usually crave is time alone.