“Stephenson had large wrought-iron boiler plates available and he also ...” — J. E. Gordon Quote

“Stephenson had large wrought-iron boiler plates available and he also had the courage of his calculations... The idea found its best-known expression in the Menai railway bridge opened in 1850. Stephenson's beams, which weighed 1,500 tons each, were built beside the Straits and were floated into position between the towers on rafts across a swirling tide. They were raised rather over a hundred feet up the towers by successive lifts with primitive hydraulic jacks. All this was not done without both apprehension and adventure; they were giants on the earth in those days.”

“Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.”

“People don't learn science in movies. You don't go to the movies thinking, 'I hope I learn some quantum mechanics this afternoon.' But on the other hand, movies are instrumental and influential in getting young people interested in science.”

“The downside of my celebrity is that I cannot go anywhere in the world without being recognized. It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away.”

“No one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experiened”

“Una delle ragioni per cui il mondo non è ancora scomparso è forse che, anche nei momenti più drammatici, c'è sempre qualcuno che impassibile guarda da un'altra parte. Dei cerchi nella sabbia... Il frontone di una casa a Delft... A bordo di una nave i cui cannoni si stanno preparando a sostenere i loro argomenti di vita e di morte, c'è un uomo completamente assorto nell'osservazione del passaggio di Venere. Per noi che cerchiamo di seguire la storia di Niebuhr e dei suoi compagni duecento anni dopo, quando altre rampe di lancio vengono preparate per ben altre detonazioni, vi è quasi un che di consolatorio in questa immagine. Anche noi vorremmo osservare questi lontani avvenimenti con tutta la precisione possibile, ma anche il nostro astrolabio a volte trema un po’...”