Carl Sagan Quotes

Quotes about:

Acceptance Age Agnosticism Aliens Animals Arguing Art

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Carl Sagan

Taken, Science, Long

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.314, Ballantine Books

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Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Carl Sagan

Positive, Hope, Educational

Nobel Award Ceremony Speech by Professor Olga Botner, Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 2017.

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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Carl Sagan

Motivational, Education, Knowledge

"Why We Need To Understand Science". The Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 14, Issue 3, www.csicop.org. Spring 1990.

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Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.

Carl Sagan

Stupidity, Glorification

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The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

Carl Sagan

Stars, Iron, Apples

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.255, Ballantine Books

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We are the universe experiencing itself.

Carl Sagan

Universe

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If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves.

Carl Sagan

Ifs

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.354, Ballantine Books

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The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true.

Carl Sagan

Science, Prejudice, Vastness

"Wonder and Skepticism". The Skeptical Inquirer 19 (1), www.csicop.org. January/February 1995.

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You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe

Carl Sagan

Death, Faith, Atheist

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I don't want to believe. I want to know.

Carl Sagan

Inspirational, Life, Religious

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - [...] when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

Carl Sagan

Children, Hands, America

"A Disturbing 1995 Prediction by Carl Sagan Accurately Describes America of Today" by PAUL RATNER, bigthink.com.

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Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Carl Sagan

Life, Art, Motivation

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.26, Ballantine Books

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Don't judge everyone else by your own limited experience.

Carl Sagan

Judging

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Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

Carl Sagan

Love, Inspirational, Perspective

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.371, Ballantine Books

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Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.

Carl Sagan

Comforting, Fantasy, Hard

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.263, Ballantine Books

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The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

Carl Sagan

Absence, Evidence

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The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance.

Carl Sagan

Ignorance, America, Decay

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The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

Carl Sagan

Wisdom, Understanding, Brain

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The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God,' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, Fall, Mean

"Scientists & Their Gods". U.S. News & World Report, Vol. 111, 1991.

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Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children.

Carl Sagan

Stars, Children, Sun

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Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.

Carl Sagan

Happiness, Strong, Atheist

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Be grateful everyday for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

Carl Sagan

Grateful, Opportunity, Everyday

"In the Valley of the Shadow". Parade, March 10, 1996.

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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Carl Sagan

Death, Witty, Atheist

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.32, Ballantine Books

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I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments.

Carl Sagan

Leader, Independence, Promise

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.546, Ballantine Books

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We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.

Carl Sagan

Time, Butterfly, Thinking

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

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Born: November 9, 1934
Died: December 20, 1996
Occupation: Astronomer
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