"The only virtue a character needs to possess between hardcovers, even if he bears a real person's name, is vitality: if he comes to life in our imaginations, he passes the test."

"Is it possible that I am not alone in believing that in the dispute between Galileo and the Church, the Church was right and the centre of man's universe is the earth?"

"We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them."

"Strange as it may seem, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and formal education positively fortifies it."

"When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness."

"The truth is that our race survived ignorance; it is our scientific genius that will do us in."