1. “More often than you might think, teaching science is inseparable from teaching doubt.”
2. “If our species is to survive, our future will probably require outposts beyond our own planet.”
3. “When you’re a theorist, the two most addictive states to be in are excited and confused.”
4. “Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.”
5. “A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality and not vice versa, whether or not we like the implications.”
6. “Keeping religion immune from criticism is both unwarranted and dangerous.”
7. “For many, to live in a universe that may have no purpose and no creator is unthinkable.”
8. “Dream or nightmare, we have to live our experience as it is, and we have to live it awake.”
9. “If innovations were predictable, they wouldn’t be discoveries.”
10. “I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.”
11. “The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.”
12. “The most remarkable leaps into the unknown are often not fully appreciated.”
13. “Lack of comfort means we are on the threshold of new insights.”
14. “It is, after all, impossible in the world to shield everyone from nonsense and stupidity.”
15. “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
