Computers have proved to be formidable chess players. In fact, they've beaten our top human chess champions.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Doing what has never been done before is intellectually seductive, whether we deem it practical.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Don’t know if it’s good or bad that a Google search on “Big Bang Theory” lists the sitcom before the origin of the Universe

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Do you realize that if you fall into a black hole, you will see the entire future of the Universe unfold in front of you in a matter of moments, and you will emerge into another space-time created by the singularity of the black hole you just fell into?

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Dreams about the future are always filled with gadgets.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore - in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their 'low contracted prejudices.' And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment - until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace, rather than fear, the cosmic perspective.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature.

— Neil deGrasse Tyson