"Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."

"Elves have this superhuman strength, yet they're so graceful. Tolkien created them to be angelic spirits, but I also saw Legolas as something out of the Seven Samurai."

"I wouldn't want my daughters to date a guy like me. I was dangerous around women in my twenties. I'm terrified that they might end up with someone like me."

"For 50 years, nuclear power stations have produced three products which only a lunatic could want: bomb-explosive plutonium, lethal radioactive waste and electricity so dear it has to be heavily subsidised. They leave to future generations the task, and most of the cost, of making safe sites that have been polluted half-way to eternity."

"Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."