"The idea that a well-defined now exists throughout the universe is an illusion, an illegitimate extrapolation of our own experience."

"Our moral values, our emotions, our loves are no less real for being part of nature, for being shared with the animal world, or for being determined by the evolution which our species has undergone over millions of years. Rather, they are more valuable as a result of this: they are real. They are the complex reality of which we are made. Our reality is tears and laughter, gratitude and altruism, loyalty and betrayal, the past which haunts us and serenity."

"The atoms of our body, as well, flow in and away from us. We, like waves and like all objects, are a flux of events; we are processes, for a brief time monotonous"

"The very foundation of science is to keep the door open to doubt."

"Children grow up and discover that the world is not as it seemed from within the four walls of their homes. Humankind as a whole does the same."

"Experiments had shown that an atom is like a small solar system: the mass is concentrated in a heavy central nucleus, around which light electrons revolve, more or less like planets around the Sun."

"A science that closes its ears to philosophy fades into superficiality; a philosophy that pays no attention to the scientific knowledge of its time is obtuse and sterile. It betrays its own deepest roots, which are evident in the etymology of philosophy: the love of knowledge."

"Si noti il meraviglioso «Mi sembra...» iniziale, che ricorda l’«Io penso...» con cui Darwin introduce nei suoi taccuini la grande idea che le specie evolvono, o l’«esitazione» di cui parla Faraday quando nel suo libro introduce la rivoluzionaria idea di campo elettrico. Il genio esita."

"Before Newton, time for humanity was the way of counting how things changed. Before him, no one had thought it possible that a time independent of things could exist. Don't take your intuitions and ideas to be 'natural': they are often the products of the ideas of audacious thinkers who came before us."

"When Einstein died, his greatest rival, Bohr, found for him words of moving admiration. When a few years later Bohr in turn died, someone took a photograph of the blackboard in his study. There’s a drawing on it. A drawing of the ‘light-filled box’ in Einstein’s thought experiment. To the very last, the desire to challenge oneself and understand more. And to the very last: doubt"