Selected Quotes

"Personally I‘m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught "

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened "

"Nature is trying very hard to make us succeed, but nature does not depend on us. We are not the only experiment. "

"My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they‘re in August. "

"No one can earn a million dollars honestly. "

"Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious "

"Karl Popper has nothing to say, but it took him 6000 pages to say it. "

"A man‘s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. "

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. "

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. "

"I believe in Spinoza‘s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings. "

"This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, ‘Doc, my brother‘s crazy, he thinks he‘s a chicken.‘ And the doctor says, ‘Well why don‘t you turn him in?‘ and the guy says, ‘I would, but I need the eggs.‘ Well, I guess that‘s pretty much now how I feel about relationships. They‘re totally irrational and crazy and absurd, but I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs. "

"We are dealing with two opposing forces, the scientific power of food production and the biologic power of human reproduction. Man has made amazing progress recently in his potential mastery of these two contending powers...there can be no permanent progress in the battle against hunger until the agencies that fight for increased food production and those that fight for population control unite in a common effort. "

"The way to get good ideas is to get lots of ideas, and throw the bad ones away. "

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. "

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee. "

"A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for. "

"I was in love with a beautiful blond once. She drove me to drink. It‘s the one thing I‘m indebted to her for. "

"I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food. "

"It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go. "

"Adventure is just bad planning. "

"You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. "

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. "

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are. "

"If I owned both Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell. "