science

"Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain."

"It is either coincidence piled on top of coincidence,"said Hollus, "or it is deliberate design."

"God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs."

"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."

"Everything existing in the universe is the fruit of chance and necessity."

"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."

"You always have a choice. It's just that some people make the wrong one."

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

"Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death."

"Pluto will always be a planet in my book. That’s because my book was published before Pluto was blacklisted by planetary scientists."

"I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."

"Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before."

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it."

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

"Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can’t touch and see."

"In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth."

"There is no indisputable proof for the big bang,"said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?"

"We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own."

"Teaching students the evidence for and against Darwinism is not the same as teaching intelligent design. The U.S. Congress has officially endorsed teaching students 'the full range of scientific views' about Darwinian evolution."

"There is no such things as magic, though there is such a thing as knowledge of the hidden ways of Nature."