“Our experience of the governments of the world, our knowledge of the weapons at their disposal, and our awareness of our own limitations justify pessimism. But some mysterious factor deep in the human psyche has produced a countervailing conviction that educating, organizing, uniting, and acting will make a difference. ”

“Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man.”

“Experiment is the only means of knowledge at our disposal. Everything else is poetry, imagination.”

“Our lives are led, and our decisions made, within a network of needs and wants, some natural, some arising from the acts of others, some aggravated by the acts of the state. We are all bored, or threatened, or tantalized in differing degrees by a perilous world, some hostile people, and a not very sensitive government.”

“If we make every attempt to increase out knowledge in order to use it for human good, it will make a difference in us and in our world.”

“Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery. It produces "nice" people, not heroes.”