It vexes me when they would constrain science by the authority of the Scriptures, and yet do not consider themselves bound to answer reason and experiment.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

My first popular book, ‚A Brief History of Time,‘ aroused a great deal of interest, but many found it difficult to understand.

Gravitation is, so far, not understandable in terms of other phenomena.

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the fundamental equations of physics.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

God is the name people give to the reason we are here. But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.

I was a very keen reader of science fiction, and during the time I was going to libraries, it was good, written by people who knew their science.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

Some day science may have the existence of mankind in power, and the human race can commit suicide by blowing up the world.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.

Therefore, the good of man must be the end of the science of politics.

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man’s struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

The word ‚belief‘ is a difficult thing for me. I don’t believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it – I don’t need to believe it.

There is nothing which can better deserve your patronage, than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Nothing is divine but what is agreeable to reason.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill.

All sciences are now under the obligation to prepare the ground for the future task of the philosopher, which is to solve the problem of value, to determine the true hierarchy of values.

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

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.

It is a profound and necessary truth that the deep things in science are not found because they are useful; they were found because it was possible to find them.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

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.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

Humor is reason gone mad.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

I am a nuclear physicist by training and a deeply committed Christian. I don’t have any doubt in my own mind about God who created the entire universe. But I don’t adhere to passages that so and so was created 4,000 years before Christ, and things of that kind.

I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time.

We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Where the senses fail us, reason must step in.

I’m never going to go to Mars, but I’ve helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

By denying scientific principles, one may maintain any paradox.

Understanding science and pushing the boundaries of science is what makes me immensely satisfied.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

True virtue is life under the direction of reason.