It’s always amusing to look at how something early in the 20th century was written in anthropology and how it’s written now. There’s been an enormous shift in how it’s done, but yet you can’t...

It is immoral from almost any point of view to refuse to defend yourself and others from very grave and terrible threats, even as there are limits to the means that can be used in...

I would much rather see responsibilities exercised by individuals than have them imposed by the government.

We all know scientists who in private life do not come up to the standard of truthfulness, but who, nevertheless, would not consciously falsify the results of their researches.

There was a space program before there was integrated circuits.

It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.

I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.

It’s a lot easier to see, at least in some cases, what the long-term limits of the possible will be, because they depend on natural law. But it’s much harder to see just what path...

Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it – in a decade, a century, or a millennium – we will all say to each other, how could...

This whole mission has surpassed all of our expectations.

Has feminism made us all more conscious? I think it has. Feminist critiques of anthropological masculine bias have been quite important, and they have increased my sensitivity to that kind of issue.

Younger anthropologists have the notion that anthropology is too diverse. The number of things done under the name of anthropology is just infinite; you can do anything and call it anthropology.

There was no race – but to the extent that there was an arms competition, it was almost entirely on the Soviet side, first to catch up and then to surpass the Americans.

I grew up between the two world wars and received a rather solid general education, the kind middle class children enjoyed in a country whose educational system had its roots dating back to the Austro-Hungarian...

If you can write DNA, you’re no longer limited to ‘what is’ but to what you could make.

The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.

It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good.

If you want to succeed in the world, you don’t have to be much cleverer than other people. You just have to be one day earlier.

Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind.

I like to do things that are surprising and different.

The thing that sets Mars apart is that it is the one planet that is enough like Earth that you can imagine life possibly once having taken hold there.

I think the American university system still seems to be the best system in the world.

For some years I have spent my time on exactly these questions – both in thinking about ways to prevent war, and in thinking about how to fight, survive, and terminate a war, should it...

A worker’s paradise is a consumer’s hell.

In France, that let down the barriers more than a hundred years ago, the feeling of antipathy is still strong enough to sustain an anti-Jewish political party.

I’m sure there will continue to be exciting new products and major changes, but it looks as if the existing technology has a great deal of room to grow and prosper.

For my own personal growth I had to set out on my own.

Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.

Jealousy is the grave of affection.

In the first Spider-Man, at the end of the movie, Peter Parker had to deny himself a relationship with a girl that he’s in love with. The very next thing that happens is that he’s...

People rarely write books that are that far out, so it might be interesting to try to write one, but no one will want to read it.

I like the Raiders. That’s my favorite team.

Meaning is socially, historically, and rhetorically constructed.

Many people believe that the current system must inevitably end in total annihilation. They reject, sometimes very emotionally, any attempts to analyze this notion.

I’ve seen disgusting excess in business, and I’ve seen disgusting excess in Washington. But at the same time, I’ve certainly learned that Washington matters and that you can’t ignore it, especially when you get into...

We do not discuss the anatomical, physiological, and mental characteristics of man considered as an individual; but we are interested in the diversity of these traits in groups of men found in different geographical areas...

They were the largest semiconductor maker in the world up until about 1980. I’m not sure that that can be re-gained again, but their progress in the last few years has been very impressive.

If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.

For the very first time the young are seeing history being made before it is censored by their elders.

Likewise nanotechnology will, once it gets under way, depend on the tools we have then and our ability to use them, and not on the steps that got us there.

A computation is a process that obeys finitely describable rules.

We’re stunned by the diversity of rocks. This stuff looks like it was put into a blender.

I agree with Chomsky in almost nothing. When it comes to innate structures and so on, I’m very skeptical.

A healthy and fully functioning society must allocate its resources among a variety of competing interests, all of which are more or less valid but none of which should take precedence over national security.

To the extent that these advanced weapons or their components are treated as articles of commerce, perhaps for peaceful uses as in the Plowshare program, their cost would be well within the resources available to...

It was in 1969 that I was able to give up my administrative responsibility. As I worked hard my research never suffered during this period and as a matter of fact these were probably some...

The scope of material I can work with is not limited to the set of things that we inherit from nature.

It is not easy to be a pioneer – but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.

Prayer does not use up artificial energy, doesn’t burn up any fossil fuel, doesn’t pollute. Neither does song, neither does love, neither does the dance.

If one knows only what one is told, one does not know enough to be able to arrive at a well-balanced decision.