“How terribly sad it was that people are made in such a way that they get used to something as extraordinary as living.”

“So now you must choose... Are you a child who has not yet become world-weary? Or are you a philosopher who will vow never to become so? To children, the world and everything in it is new, something...”

“Imagine that one day you are out for a walk in the woods. Suddenly you see a small spaceship on the path in front of you. A tiny Martian climbs out the spaceship and stands on the ground looking up...”

“Wisest is she who knows she does not know.”

“When you realize there is something you don't understand, then you're generally on the right path to understanding all kinds of things.”

“As long as we are children, we have the ability to experience things around us--but then we grow used to the world. To grow up is to get drunk on sensory experience.”

“The function of sociology, as of every science, is to reveal that which is hidden.”

“All theory of modernity in sociology suggests that the more modernity there is, the less religion. In my theory we can realize that this is wrong: atheism is only one belief system among many.”

“If it's far away, it's news, but if it's close at home, it's sociology.”