George Bernard Shaw from Man and Superman on The Unreasonable Man.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

Stephen Jay Gould from The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

Richard Feynman on God

I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit If I can't figure it out then I go on to something else. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell possibly, it doesn't frighten me. From: Richard Feynman on God on YouTube

Sam Harris on the Difficulty of Progress

We have barely emerged from centuries of barbarism. It's not a surprise that there are shocking inequities in this world. It is hard work to climb down out of the trees, walk upright and build a viable global civilization when you start with technology that's made of rocks and sticks and fur. This is, this is... a project and progress is difficult. From this video on YouTube.

Michael Jordan on Teamwork

Talent wins games, but teamwork wins Championships.

Georg Wilhelm on Passion

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion

Jacob Bronowski on Civilization from The Ascent of Man

The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Civilization is not a collection of finished artifacts, it is the elaboration of processes. In the end, the march of man is the refinement of the hand in action.

The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder.