To attempt this would be like seeing without eyes or directing the gaze of knowledge behind one's own eye. Modern science can acknowledge no other than this epistemological stand-point.

There's no question that as science knowledge and technology advance that we will attempt to do more significant things. And there's no question that we will always have to temper those things with ethics.

There is no arguing with the pretenders to a divine knowledge and to a divine mission. They are possessed with the sin of pride they have yielded to the perennial temptation.

To attempt to superimpose its views through the exercise of force is seldom the part of intelligence it is frequently the part of ignorance.

People are what you make them. A scornful look turns into a complete fool a man of average intelligence. A contemptuous indifference turns into an enemy a woman who well treated might have been an angel.

True humor springs not more from the head than from the heart. It is not contempt its essence is love. It issues not in laughter but in still smiles which lie far deeper.

I had a huge advantage when I started 50 years ago - my job was secure. I didn't have to promote myself. These days there's far more pressure to make a mark so the temptation is to make adventure television or personality shows. I hope the more didactic approach won't be lost.

A lot of people because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed to be the repository of other people's hope.

I've never had WiFi at home. I'm too easily distracted and YouTube is too tempting.

My mother whom I love dearly has continually revised my life story within the context of a complicated family history that includes more than the usual share of divorce step-children dysfunction and obfuscation. I've spent most of my adult life attempting to deconstruct that history and separate fact from fiction.

In the tumult of men and events solitude was my temptation now it is my friend. What other satisfaction can be sought once you have confronted History?

Stonehenge was built possibly by the Minoans. It presents one of man's first attempts to order his view of the outside world.

Congress is attempting to eviscerate women's health care. Like many women across America I am outraged.

Nor is it the least advantage to health accruing from such a way of life that it expose those who follow it to fewer temptations to vice than persons who live in crowded society.

My father was a small-town banker. He became very ill when I was 10 years old and we went to California three years later in an attempt to recover his health which never happened.

Because we spoke so loudly opponents of reproductive health access demonized and smeared me and others on the public airwaves. These smears are obvious attempts to distract from meaningful policy discussions and to silence women's voices regarding their own health care.

I have learned to seek my happiness by limiting my desires rather than in attempting to satisfy them.

Contempt for happiness is usually contempt for other people's happiness and is an elegant disguise for hatred of the human race.

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.

When small men attempt great enterprises they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.

When bad men combine the good must associate else they will fall one by one an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.