Steven Weinberg

"Science is not a collection of laws, but a process of refinement toward deeper understanding."

"Every answer in physics leads to deeper questions."

"We are made of atoms, but atoms are not made of anything—they are fundamental particles."

"The universe is comprehensible because it follows rational principles."

"To understand physics is to understand ourselves and our place in the cosmos."

"The greatest discoveries in science often come from asking simple questions about complex things."

"Nature is not cruel, nor is it kind—it simply is, and we must understand it on its own terms."

"The search for understanding is the highest calling of the human spirit."

"The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy."

"If there is a God that cares personally about my conduct on this planet, I would not expect that God to care very much about my religion."

"Science doesn't make it impossible to believe in God, it just makes it possible not to believe in God."

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."

"I wanted to find an argument that would show that belief in God is not necessary to live a full and happy life."

"One of the great achievements of science has been to make it possible for us to ignore the supernatural."

"The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless."

"A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody believes, except the person who made it."

"You take the good things that come in your life, and try not to overrate them, because you're going to lose them."

"Physics is really nothing more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have found is ultimate complexity."

"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."

"I learned something fundamental about science: that it is driven by the desire to understand the world, not by the desire to understand money."

"Nothing in physics seems impossible anymore. The laws of nature are the canvas God laid down on which he painted his masterpiece."

"The joy of discovering something new never goes away."

"We physicists are always looking for symmetry in nature. But the universe itself is not symmetrical."

"I have found the most rewarding part of my life has been my family."

"The really important advances in science come from people who are passionate about the questions, not about the answers."

"What we learn from history is that people don't learn from history."

"Scientific knowledge is the most reliable kind of knowledge we have."

"The universe doesn't owe us answers; we have to extract them."

"I think we all have a responsibility to leave the world better than we found it."

"Understanding the fundamental laws of nature is the highest purpose of science."