Simon Conway Morris Quotes

What we expect to find, certainly in our own solar system, are probably simple single or multiple-cell forms of life. To get to intelligent life takes stability of conditions over huge, long periods of time.

I think there must be some other life forms, even if they're microscopic.

There are so many possibilities of life out there that an alien doesn't have to have green, long tentacles. They can be very similar to us.

People quite often think of the question 'Are we alone in the universe?' in terms of other civilizations out there: life forms that have reached at least our level of technological development.

It's odd that invoking the possibility of alien influences should itself be a sign of madness. I don't see the need for it to explain history on earth, but I can't see any reason why the universe shouldn't be full of life.

In the universe of possibilities that exist for life, we've shown that it is a very easy possibility for life as we know it to include silicon in organic molecules. And once you can do it somewhere in the universe, it's probably being done.

I believe that there may be intelligent life on other planets.

No astrophysicist would deny the possibility of life. I think we're not creative enough to imagine what life would be like on another planet. Show me a dead alien. Better yet, show me a live one!

This planet seems to be in such sorry shape. And I can't ever think about the rest of the universe without coming back home and thinking what the implications for life here would be if we were to really have some definitive proof of extraterrestrial life.

I believe in aliens. I think it would be way too selfish of us as mankind to believe we are the only lifeforms in the universe.

Of course I believe in aliens. I think it's very egocentric to think that there's nothing else with intelligence in the whole universe.

I actually think the chances that we'll find E.T. are pretty good.

Whether Earth was deliberately terraformed, in other words, or whether it was seeded with the spores of life from crashed comets or whether, indeed, life arose here spontaneously and accidentally, it is reasonable to hope that we might find traces of the same kind of process on Mars.

With 'Extinction Machine,' I wanted to start some conversations about whether we're alone in the universe and what that might mean.

I'm so biased to this issue of the origins of life and the limits of life.

Life exists throughout the cosmos and is a consequence of matter in the universe.

I believe alien life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is less so. Some say it has yet to appear on planet Earth.

I don't think we are the only planet that has life.

The human race may be the only intelligent beings in the galaxy.

I think it'd be pretty unrealistic to think we're the only planet in the world with thinking beings. It's kind of a strange conceit. Especially given how many universes there must be.

How can the human race be, like, the only living form in the universe? There have to be other life forms out there. I believe it.

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.

The more we know about life out there the easier it will be to improve life down here.

If there are other worlds elsewhere in the universe, I would conjecture they are governed by the same laws of natural selection.

I think there's all kinds of life out there, including intelligent life, but the reason we haven't found each other is because of vast distances.