It is a curious thing: man, the centre and creator of all science, is the only object which our science has not yet succeeded in including in a homogeneous representation of the universe. We know the history of his bones, but no ordered place has yet been found in nature for his reflective intelligence.

I think that man has a fundamental obligation to extract from himself and from the earth all that it can give; and this obligation is all the more imperative that we are absolutely ignorant of what limits - they may still be very distant - God has imposed on our natural understanding and power.

Progressively saved by the machine from the anxieties that bound his hands and mind to material toil, relieved of a large part of his work and compelled to an ever-increasing speed of action by the devices which his intelligence cannot help ceaselessly creating and perfecting, man is about to find himself abruptly plunged into idleness.

Religion and science are the two conjugated faces or phases of one and the same complete act of knowledge - the only one which can embrace the past and future of evolution and so contemplate, measure and fulfil them.

People start talking about you and spreading false information, and it can really affect your spirit. So faith is very important to me.

Prayer is not passive. It takes a big man to pray - and to admit that he prays.

Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.

Retirement has never entered my mind for one moment because I don't feel the age I am - and I don't act it, and I don't speak like it. When God calls me, that's when I stop. Until then, I'm going to just keep going.