I felt strongly that since the pursuit of good science was so difficult it was essential that the problem being studied was an important one to justify the effort expanded.

After all science is essentially international and it is only through lack of the historical sense that national qualities have been attributed to it.

Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple and may as a rule be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.

What I'd really like to write is a romantic comedy. This is my favorite kind of movie. I feel almost embarrassed revealing this because the genre has been so degraded in the past twenty years that saying you like romantic comedies is essentially an admission of mild stupidity.

Status anxiety definitely exists at a political level. Many Iraqis were annoyed with the US essentially for reasons of status: for not showing them respect for humiliating them.

The respect for human rights essential if we are to use technology wisely is not something alien that must be grafted onto science. On the contrary it is integral to science as also to scholarship in general.

Part of our essential humanity is paying respect to what God gave us and what will be here a long time after we're gone.

If there is one realm in which it is essential to be sublime it is in wickedness. You spit on a petty thief but you can't deny a kind of respect for the great criminal.

But strictly speaking this mythology was no essential part of ancient religion for it had no sacred sanction and no binding force on the worshippers.

I am a Westerner. We're not going to change the West by going East. The East has a lot to teach us but essentially it's like a mirror saying hey can't you see what's here in your own religion what are you stupid?