Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.

The only society I like is rough and tough and the tougher the better. There's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal not merely a gregarious animal but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.

The human race's prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenceless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenceless against ourselves.

Society has always seemed to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

Ascetics and fakirs come to mitigate human suffering to heal us and lead us on the path. They put up with criticism they go through many worldly trials. Some of them have even become martyrs for our sake. But they have done all this with a smile and with gratitude to God. Hence sacrifice is a great virtue.

First I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her - for her energy and commitment to others and especially for her devotion to her two boys.

Jesus wept Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.

A third ideal that has made its way in the modern world is reliance on reason especially reason disciplined and enriched by modern science. An eternal basis of human intercommunication is reason.

The science is clear that there is an increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. What is not clear from the science is how much of that increase is caused by human activity and what also is not clear is what impact those increases have on the climatic cycle.

Indeed the whole human species is endangered by nuclear weapons or by other means of wholesale destruction which further advances in science are likely to produce.

I saw science as being in harmony with humanity.

I did not imagine that the second half of my life would be spent on efforts to avert a mortal danger to humanity created by science.

I think the perception of there being a deep gulf between science and the humanities is false.

Tasmanian history is a study of human isolation unprecedented except in science fiction - namely complete isolation from other humans for 10 000 years.

Thousands of years ago humans domesticated every possible large wild mammal species fulfilling all those criteria and worth domesticating with the result that there have been no valuable additions of domestic animals in recent times despite the efforts of modern science.

Science fiction encourages us to explore... all the futures good and bad that the human mind can envision.

While that amendment failed human cloning continues to advance and the breakthrough in this unethical and morally questionable science is around the corner.

Today Academies of Science use their influence around the world in support of human rights.

It is this at its most basic that makes science a humane pursuit it acknowledges the commonality of people's experience.

I have an idealistic view of science as a liberalising and progressive force for humanity.

Science is not a heartless pursuit of objective information. It is a creative human activity its geniuses acting more as artists than as information processors.