Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 10

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• Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

  Carl Sagan

  Goal, Custodians, Purpose

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

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• Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Cells, Triumph, Littles

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• Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs — in time, in space, and in potential — the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors.

  Carl Sagan

  Space, Overcoming, Tiny

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.73, Ballantine Books

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• Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.

  Carl Sagan

  Country, Ignorance, Government

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

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• Perhaps, in retrospect, there would be little motivation even for malevolent extraterrestrials to attack the Earth; perhaps, after a preliminary survey, they might decide it is more expedient just to be patient for a little while and wait for us to self-destruct.

  Carl Sagan

  Motivation, Self, Waiting

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.169, Ballantine Books

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• Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and after looking about for a few thousand years declares itself in possession of eternal truths. But in a world that is changing as fast as ours, this is a prescription for disaster. No nation, no religion, no economic system, no body of knowledge, is likely to have all the answers for our survival. There must be many social systems that would work far better than any now in existence. In the scientific tradition, our task is to find them.

  Carl Sagan

  Years, Survival, Answers

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• When permitted to listen to alternative opinions and engage in substantive debate, people have been known to change their minds. It can happen.

  Carl Sagan

  People, Mind, Alternatives

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.550, Ballantine Books

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• All of us cherish our beliefs. They are, to a degree, self-defining. When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well-based - or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven't thought of, or demonstrates that we've swept key underlying assumptions under the rug - it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. It feels like a personal assault.

  Carl Sagan

  Love, Embarrassing Questions, Keys

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.297, Ballantine Books

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• The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Fleeting, Ephemeral

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.241, Ballantine Books

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• I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future, can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

  Carl Sagan

  Thinking, Civilization, Support

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.307, Ballantine Books

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• We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.

  Carl Sagan

  Ocean, Self, Years

  "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Documentary (1990 Update). Episode 1: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean", 1990.

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• The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason and morality. We have them, the other animals don't, and -- so the argument goes -- that's that.

  Carl Sagan

  Animal, Culture, Tools

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• I hold that popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark the sense of wonder.

  Carl Sagan

  Successful, Science, Doe

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.429, Ballantine Books

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• The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood

  Carl Sagan

  Song, Childhood, Forgotten

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.15, Ballantine Books

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• Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Night, Light

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• Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation

  Carl Sagan

  Animal, Men, Creation

  Carl Sagan (1973). “Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective”, p.5, Cambridge University Press

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• Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that's their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.

  Carl Sagan

  Ideas, Icons, Wish

  Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.48, Penguin

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• Science is merely an extremely powerful method of winnowing what's true from what feels good.

  Carl Sagan

  Powerful, Science, Feel Good

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• The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Together, Atoms

  "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God". Book by Carl Sagan, 2006.

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• Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, War, Science

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.31, Ballantine Books

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• It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us - but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Weakness, Thrive

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.355, Ballantine Books

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• Religions contradict one another-on small matters, such as whether we should put on a hat or take one off on entering a house of worship, or whether we should eat beef and eschew pork or the other way around, all the way to the most central issues, such as whether there are no gods, one God, or many gods.

  Carl Sagan

  Religious, Issues, House

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.71, Ballantine Books

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• We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like the inside of a volcano. In many stories, both realms are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by gods or devils. Monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the Universe. Few found the similarity suspicious.

  Carl Sagan

  Running, Kings, Volcanoes

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.65, Ballantine Books

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• Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.

  Carl Sagan

  Superstitions, Way, Bluffs

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.65, Ballantine Books

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• It took the Church until 1832 to remove Galileo 's work from its list of books which Catholics were forbidden to read at the risk of dire punishment of their immortal souls.

  Carl Sagan

  Book, Punishment, Soul

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.62, Ballantine Books

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