”The wise words would be, what’s more fun than science? Also, when you meet somebody who’s anti-science ask yourself, is he just anti-you or anti-me or anti-something else? It’s very easy to think you have a little more knowledge than someone else. I got a lot of e-mail during the Gulf oil spill and one, that I later answered, started out, “Well, these so-called engineers clearly have no idea how to clean up an oil spill.” I wrote back, “I strongly recommend that you not call the people who have been working day and night on this the last forty days idiots because it’s very likely that they won’t listen to the rest of what you have to say.” We all have a tendency to dismiss people who believe other things, who are outsiders, or who speak other languages. I constantly have to fight the urge to say, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! That’s crazy!” My advice is just try to listen and see if you can figure out what it is that makes a person not want to believe in climate change, not want to accept that Venus is like Earth only a little different, not want to question things.

Bill Nye, After being asked for some final words of wisdom on spreading appreciation for science. (via thelonelyastronaut)