“Understanding is a kind of ecstasy”

“When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life. There are not many different kinds; there's only one kind. It uses about fifty fundamental biological building blocks, organic molecules.”

“Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.”

“Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding.”

“You have to know the past to understand the present.”

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

“These are the folks who brought us the hydrogen bomb. Forgive me, Lord, for not being more grateful to these kind souls”