I would send the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach into outer space on the Voyager spacecraft. But that would be boasting.

- Lewis Thomas

It is my belief, based partly on personal experience but partly also arrived at by looking around at others, that childhood lasts considerably longer…

- Lewis Thomas

We are, perhaps, uniquely among the earth's creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present,…

- Lewis Thomas

The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be n…

- Lewis Thomas

The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature... It is this sudden co…

- Lewis Thomas

It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.

- Lewis Thomas

We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go, on whatever we touch.

- Lewis Thomas

We owe our lives to the sun... How is it, then, that we feel no gratitude?

- Lewis Thomas

Science will...produce the data..., but never the full meaning. For perceiving real significance, we shall need...most of all the brains of poets…

- Lewis Thomas