Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as they change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.
In the quest to understand quantum gravity, we are like children playing on the shore of a vast ocean, occasionally finding a smooth pebble or a pretty shell, while the great ocean of truth lies undiscovered before us.