[T]he inescapable task of the quantum cosmologist is to propose laws of initial or boundary conditions for the universe.

[T]he hot big bang model suffered from extreme dependence on initial conditions. Finding the present universe in this model would be as unlikely as finding a pencil balanced on its point after an earthquake.

[E]veryday there is far more we know we don’t know.

This result is too beautiful to be false; it is more important to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment.

When the great innovation appears, it will almost certainly be in a muddled, incomplete and confusing form.

[I]t feels as though time flows inexorably on. But that is an illusion.

Nothing in known physics corresponds to the passage of time. … is there a key quality of time that science has not yet identified?

[T]he total energy of the universe is neither conserved nor lost―it is just undefinable.

[W]hen attempting to solve a problem, changing your physical vantage point or mental framework can loft you past perceived limits.