John C. Mather

“If there is an impact on climate change due to natural causes, we need to understand that, and cannot escape responsibility to deal with what we are doing now.”

“Hubble knows there is interesting stuff out there, but Hubble isn't quite big enough.”

“Easytrak is no guarantee against mismanagement. But you cannot manage a large program without software like it today. It is a project information management system that helps people develop a solution to a problem with many parts to track.”

“Every time we get a story that says there was a Big Bang, then people want to know what was before that. And if we find out, what was before that?”

“Many of the problems facing the nation and the world today may only be solved if their technical elements are understood - climate change, energy supply, health care, and infrastructure, to name just a few.”

“The predominant theory of the origin of the universe is the Big Bang.”

“Even your chin is made up of exploded stars.”

“We are discovering what the universe is really like, and it is totally magnificent, and one can only be inspired and awestruck by what we find.”

“Stars are extremely far apart. We cannot imagine any way currently available to get to the nearest one, besides the sun.”

“I had to learn to be more open with people and to know how to show that I was interested in them.”

“When you have a deadline, or when you know that your equipment is about to go up in a rocket and you won't have another chance to fix it, your mind works in a way that it otherwise never would.”

“One of the most powerful scientific tools ever invented is the telephone.”

“In 100 billion years, the universe will be a very strange place.”

“There is strength in numbers, but organizing those numbers is one of the great challenges.”

“Do not make grand plans. Be flexible.”

“My experience from working with people is that you can have a conversation with someone or have a meeting with a group of people, and from that meeting will derive an answer to a question that no individual could have ever thought of by him or herself.”