Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.

My only fear is that I may live too long. This would be a subject of dread to me.

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Many people find the universe confusing – it’s not.

When we understand string theory, we will know how the universe began. It won’t have much effect on how we live, but it is important to understand where we come from and what we can expect to find as we explore.

I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance.

One who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.

The big message of gospel is that you don’t have to keep fighting the universe; you can stop, and the universe is quite good to you. There is a loss of ego.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

The myths underlying our culture and underlying our common sense have not taught us to feel identical with the universe, but only parts of it, only in it, only confronting it – aliens.

If there is no God, everything is permitted.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.

My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.

Baseball is a universe as large as life itself, and therefore all things in life, whether good or bad, whether tragic or comic, fall within its domain.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.

The universe as we know it is a joint product of the observer and the observed.

Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul. Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the ‚Not Me,‘ that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, ‚Nature.‘

To live is to think.

To the dumb question, ‚Why me?‘ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, ‚Why not?‘

We get the exciting result that the total energy of the universe is zero. Why this should be so is one of the great mysteries – and therefore one of the important questions of physics. After all, what would be the use of studying physics if the mysteries were not the most important things to investigate?

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth. Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change. It operates everywhere and is free from danger. It may be considered the mother of the universe. I do not know its name; I call it Tao.

We think that life develops spontaneously on Earth, so it must be possible for life to develop on suitable planets elsewhere in the universe. But we don’t know the probability that a planet develops life.

Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.

In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.

I don’t pretend to understand the Universe – it’s a great deal bigger than I am.

Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide.

I think the discovery of supersymmetric partners for the known particles would revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation.

Everything is perfect in the universe – even your desire to improve it.

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.

It was Einstein’s dream to discover the grand design of the universe, a single theory that explains everything. However, physicists in Einstein’s day hadn’t made enough progress in understanding the forces of nature for that to be a realistic goal.

It is clear to everyone that astronomy at all events compels the soul to look upwards, and draws it from the things of this world to the other.

I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.

The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.

For me, the real earth is that chosen part of the universe, still almost universally dispersed and in course of gradual segregation, but which is little by little taking on body and form in Christ.

Death is not the worst that can happen to men.

One might be led to suspect that there were all sorts of things going on in the universe which he or she did not thoroughly understand.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

If we do discover a complete theory, it should be in time understandable in broad principle by everyone. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people be able to take part in the discussion of why we and the universe exist.

I’ve always been a loner.

The centre of the system of the world is immovable.

I believe everyone should have a broad picture of how the universe operates and our place in it. It is a basic human desire. And it also puts our worries in perspective.