"Too often, this concern for the big picture is simply obscurantist and is put forward by people who prefer vagueness and mystery to answers. Vagueness is at times necessary and mystery is never in short supply, but I don’t think they’re anything to worship. Genuine science and mathematical precision are more intriguing than are the “facts” published in supermarket tabloids or a romantic innumeracy which fosters credulity, stunts skepticism, and dulls one to real imponderables."

“There surely is something to these terms, but too often they’re the result of minds intent on discovering meaning where there is only probability.”

“The necessity of this psychic stepping back to the metalevel is probably what is meant when people say that a sense of perspective is needed for an appreciation of humor. It also explains why dogmatists, idealogues, and others with one-track minds are often notoriously humorless.”

“Rigid distinctions between the deep and the shallow are generally themselves quite superficial.”

“The whole weight of science is the prima facie evidence against a miracle having occurred.”

“Bad things happen periodically, and they’re going to happen to somebody. Why not you?”

“A tendency to drastically underestimate the frequency of coincidences is a prime characteristic of innumerates, who generally accord great significance to correspondences of all sorts while attributing too little significance to quite conclusive but less flashy statistical evidence.”