We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life.

Jews were the first to believe that history itself has meaning and that progress, not repetition, is the law of life.

There is no human failure greater than to launch a profoundly important endeavour and then leave it half done.

[The Western Colonial system] shook all the societies in the world loose from their old moorings. But it seems indifferent whether or not they reach safe harbour in the end.

The modern world is not given to uncritical admiration. It expects its idols to have feet of clay and can be reasonably sure that the press and camera will report their exact dimensions.