Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 22

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• Goddard represented a unique combination of visionary dedication and technological brilliance. He studied physics because he needed physics to get to Mars. In reading the notebooks of Robert Goddard, I am struck by how powerful his exploratory and scientific motivations were - and how influental speculative ideas, even erroneous ones, can be on the shaping of the future.

  Carl Sagan

  Notebook, Motivation, Powerful

  Carl Sagan (1979). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”, Random House Inc

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• Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you.

  Carl Sagan

  Wish, Mars, Reason

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• The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.

  Carl Sagan

  Ozone Layer, Together, Layers

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• Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species.

  Carl Sagan

  Thoughtful, Keys, Civilization

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.172, Ballantine Books

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• Both the Freudian and the Platonic metaphors emphasize the considerable independence of and tension among the constituent parts of the psyche, a point that characterizes the human condition.

  Carl Sagan

  Psychology, Independence, Metaphor

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.83, Ballantine Books

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• Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival.

  Carl Sagan

  Life, Compassion, Keys

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• A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in terms of physics and chemistry.

  Carl Sagan

  Religion, Generations, World

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.347, Ballantine Books

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• One of the great commandments of science is, 'Mistrust arguments from authority'. (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of course do not always follow this commandment.)

  Carl Sagan

  Hierarchy, Dominance, Argument

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.52, Ballantine Books

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• The wind whips through the canyons of the American Southwest, and there is no one to hear it but us - a reminder of the 40,000 generations of thinking men and women who preceded us, about whom we know almost nothing, upon whom our civilization is based.

  Carl Sagan

  Men, Thinking, Wind

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.67, Ballantine Books

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• The secrets of evolution are death and time-the deaths of enormous numbers of lifeforms that were imperfectly adapted to the environment; and time for a long succession of small mutations.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Numbers, Long

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.49, Ballantine Books

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• I don?t feel rejected by the sky. I?m a part of it- tiny, to be sure, but everything is tiny compared to that overwhelming immensity.

  Carl Sagan

  Sky, Rejection, Tiny

  Carl Sagan (1994). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, Random House Incorporated

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• Scientists constantly get clobbered with the idea that we spent 27 billion dollars on the Apollo programs, and are asked "What more do you want?" We didn't spend it; it was done for political reasons. ... Apollo was a response to the Bay of Pigs fiasco and to the successful orbital flight of Yuri Gagarin. President Kennedy's objective was not to find out the origin of the moon by the end of the decade; rather it was to put a man on the moon and bring him back, and we did that.

  Carl Sagan

  Successful, Science, Moon

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• Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological state plans for it. Everyone knows it is madness, and every nation has an excuse

  Carl Sagan

  War, Thinking, Nuclear

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.349, Ballantine Books

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• The reappearance of the crescent moon after the new moon; the return of the Sun after a total eclipse, the rising of the Sun in the morning after its troublesome absence at night were noted by people around the world; these phenomena spoke to our ancestors of the possibility of surviving death. Up there in the skies was also a metaphor of immortality.

  Carl Sagan

  Morning, Sunset, Moon

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• He sought a way to preserve the past. John Hershel was one of the founders of a new form of time travel.... a means to capture light and memories. He actually coined a word for it... photography. When you think about it, photography is a form of time travel. This man is staring at us from across the centuries, a ghost preserved by light.

  Carl Sagan

  Photography, Memories, Mean

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• The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not with a Designer of a more remote and indirect temperament)

  Carl Sagan

  Errors, Inability, Trial And Error

  "Cosmos".

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• But amid much elegance and precision, the details of life and the Universe also exhibit haphazard, jury-rigged arrangements and much poor planning. What shall we make of this: an edifice abandoned early in construction by the architect?

  Carl Sagan

  Details Of Life, Atheism, Poor Planning

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.76, Ballantine Books

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• If you want to make a [rhubarb] pie from scratch, first you have to create the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Pie, Scratches, Want

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• Maybe it's a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds - promising untold opportunities - beckon. Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.

  Carl Sagan

  Opportunity, Other Worlds, Waiting

  Carl Sagan (1994). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, Random House Incorporated

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• Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.

  Carl Sagan

  Self, Numbers, Depth

  Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.151, Simon and Schuster

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• What an astonishing thing a book is.

  Carl Sagan

  Book, Astonishing

  "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". TV Series (Episode 11: The Persistence of Memory), 1990.

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• The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.

  Carl Sagan

  Pain, Important, Pseudoscience

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.44, Ballantine Books

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• Humans are very good at dreaming, although you'd never know it from your television.

  Carl Sagan

  Dream, Television, Vastness

  "Contact". Book by Carl Sagan. Chapter 20, p. 359, 1985.

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• The universe forces those who live in it to understand it.

  Carl Sagan

  Force, Regularity, Predictability

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.19, Ballantine Books

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• One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that the media is reassuring people it's alright not to know anything. That to me is far more dangerous than a little pornography on the Internet.

  Carl Sagan

  Media, People, Stupidity

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