“The beginning of wisdom, I believe, is our ability to accept an inherent messiness in our explanation of what's going on. Nowhere is it written that human minds should be able to give a full accoun...”

“Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system.”

“I went through the standard scientific atheist phase when I was about 14. I bought into that package deal of science equals atheism.”

“Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are bas...”

“The simplest and cheapest of all reforms within institutional science is to switch from the passive to the active voice in writing about science.”

“The facts of science are real enough, and so are the techniques that scientists use, and so are the technologies based on them. But the belief system that governs conventional scientific thinking i...”

“I am not saying that Hitler was a choir boy. But I am saying, let him who was innocent in the Second World War cast the first stone.”

“Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix.”

“Pride is ugly. It says, 'If you succeed, I am a failure.'”

“Highly organized research is guaranteed to produce nothing new.”

“Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get th...”

“Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.”

“The misery in war-torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the Thirty Years' War.”

“When I was five years old, I auditioned for the role of 'Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol.'”

“Yeah, I spent my teen years in West Virginia, and when I was a kid, in Louisiana. I definitely have that exposure to two different sorts of rural: the South and Appalachia.”