Quotes from Neil deGrasse Tyson

The good thing about the laws of physics is that they require no law enforcement agencies to maintain them

The universe is knowable...

Earth's brightness is less than one-billionth that of the Sun, and our planet's proximity to the Sun would make it extremely hard for anybody to see Earth directly with a visible light telescope.

The universe is knowable and what one need not apeal to mystical, magical forces to account for things

Every cup that passes through a single person and eventually rejoins the world's water supply holds enough molecules to mix 1,500 of them into every other cup of water in the world. No way around it: some of the water you just drank passed through the kidneys of Socrates, Genghis Khan, and Joan of Arc.

One substantial hunk of junk led to the formation of the Moon. The unexpected scarcity of iron and other higher-mass elements in the Moon, derived from lunar samples returned by Apollo astronauts, indicates that the Moon most likely burst forth from Earth's iron-poor crust and mantle after a glancing collision with a wayward Mars-sized protoplanet.

life began on Mars and later seeded life on Earth, a process known as panspermia.

To other scientists, the scientist who corrects a colleague's error, or cites good reasons for seriously doubting his or her conclusions, performs a noble deed, like a Zen master who boxes the ears of a novice straying from the meditative path, although scientists correct one another more as equals than as master and student.

Out of ninety-four naturally occurring elements, hydrogen lays claim to more than two-thirds of all atoms in the human body, and more than ninety percent of all atoms in the cosmos, on all scales, right on down to the solar system.

Thus, helium became the first and only element in the chemist's Periodic Table to be discovered someplace other than Earth.

When I pore over the data that establish the mysterious prescence of dark matter and dark energy throughout the universe, sometimes I forget that every day- every twenty a fourth out rotation on Earth- people get killed in the name of someone else's conception of God, and that some people who do not kill in the name of God, kill in the name of needs or wants of political dogma.

the hottest part of the day on Earth is not at noon, but sometime after noon, because the ground absorbs visible light

Taken together, you get the best indication that water absorbs microwave frequencies.

The future is 1/39 as long as the past.

Gravity is a marvelous force, but a troubling one.

Your body has to come up with about 100 watts of energy to keep yourself warm

Intelligence and longevity do not seem to be correlated.

Personally, I am quite comfortable with chemicals. My favorite stars, as well as my best friends, are all made of them.

I don't know how Albert would have felt about this, but an unknown element was discovered in the debris of the first hydrogen bomb test in the Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific, on November 1, 1952, and was named einsteinium in his honor. I might have named it armageddium instead.

Dark matter is dark; that means it does not interact with photons

Sir William Herschel was the first person to discover a planet beyond those easily visible to the naked eye, and he was ready to name it after the King—always a safe bet when you are his subject. Had Sir William succeeded, the planet list would read: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and George. Fortunately, clearer heads prevailed and the classical name Uranus was adopted some years later.

Dark matter particles should be passing through your body right now.

If you must know, the brightest star in the nighttime sky is Sirius, the Dog Star.

After nine billion years of such enrichment, in an undistinguished part of the universe (the outskirts of the Virgo Supercluster) in an undistinguished galaxy (the Milky Way) in an undistinguished region (the Orion Arm), an undistinguished star (the Sun) was born.