As scientists, we step on the shoulders of science, building on the work that has come before us – aiming to inspire a new generation of young scientists to continue once we are gone.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

Poetry surrounds us everywhere, but putting it on paper is, alas, not so easy as looking at it.

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

The hippie movement politicized my generation. When it ended, we all started looking back at our own history, looking, in my case, for motives of rebellion.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

In the history of medicine, it is not always the great scientist or the learned doctor who goes forward to discover new fields, new avenues, new ideas.

I was of the generation where most of the Disney princesses and female characters were not girls that I admired. They just weren’t characters I looked up to and identified with.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band – or at least in a Pixies cover band.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.

We have to build the capacity of our institutions, employees and workers. Our regulatory environment has not been encouraging to research, innovation and enterprise.

I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be.

The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.

Animals, in their generation, are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors… What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‚Great, I got another one out of the way’… Keep moving forward.

A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient.

We welcome the scrutiny of the world – because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.

My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer.

Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.

If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it’s my wonder and delight in the earth as it is, particularly the natural earth.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

From the point of view of basic physics, the most interesting phenomena are, of course, in the new places, the places where the rules do not work – not the places where they do work! That is the way in which we discover new rules.

If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction – especially autobiographies and biographies. I’ve read ‚Long Walk to Freedom‘ by Nelson Mandela at least twice on holiday. Every time, I’m totally awed by his vision, strength and forgiveness. I feel honoured to have got to know him and his wonderful wife Graca over the years.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

I like to work with artists from around the world. There are so many new inspiring filmmakers.

When I die, and people realize that I will not be resurrected in three days, they will forget me. That is the way it should be.

Green Eggs and Ham was the story of my life. I wouldn’t eat a thing when I was a kid, but Dr. Seuss inspired me to try cauliflower!

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

If I inspire you, pay for it, period.

I’m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I’m living on.

I am a great fan of science, but I cannot do a quadratic equation.

My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

My family’s lineage, we are warriors. The McGregor clan, we are warriors all through. We are famous all through the world for our fighting capabilities of all generations. So I have no doubt that’s stood to me and that led me down this path and gave me what I have.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.