Humility

A billion dollars — what's that? It's a backyard barbecue to the Creator of the universe. So give it away. All of it.

Though you win a Nobel Prize in physics and literature, in a sense it is more important that you keep physics and literature alive, to be passed on to the generations that follow you.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Pride is precisely what will lead the world to hell. I am suggesting an alternative: humbly accepting our responsibility for the world.

The world is in the hands of us all. And yet some have a greater influence on its fate than others. The more influence a person has, the greater the demands placed on their sense of responsibility.

What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary. I am merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.

Success is somebody else's failure. Success is the American Dream we can keep dreaming because most people in most places, including thirty million of ourselves, live wide awake in the terrible reality of poverty.

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.

Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.

We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.

The divisions between us are artificial and transient. Our common humanity is God-made and enduring.