“the simplest explanation usually sounds right and is farmore convincing than any complicated explanation couldhope to be.”

“If you’re going to create, create a lot. Creativity is not like playing the slot machines, where failure to win means you go home broke. With creativity, if you don’t win, you’re usually no worse off than if you hadn’t played.”

“If you are proven to be right a hundred times in a row,no amount of evidence will convince you that you are mistakenin the hundred-and-first case. You will be seduced byyour own apparent infallibility. Remember that all scientificexperiments are performed by human beings and the resultsare subject to human interpretation. The human mind is adelusion generator, not a window to truth. Everyone, includingskeptics, will generate delusions that match their views.That is how a normal and healthy brain works. Skeptics arenot exempt from self-delusion.”

“But never being wrong is no proof thatthe method of testing is sound for all cases”

“Our arrogancecauses us to imagine special value in this temporary collectionof molecules. Why do we perceive more spiritual valuein the sum of our body parts than on any individual cell inour body? Why don’t we hold funerals when skin cells die?”

“Skeptics,” he said, “suffer from the skeptics’ disease—the problem of being right too often.”

“The best any human can do is to pick a delusion thathelps him get through the day”