Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 19

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Acceptance Age Agnosticism Aliens Animals Arguing Art

As agonizing a disease as cancer is, I do not think it can be said that our civilization is threatened by it. ... But a very plausible case can be made that our civilization is fundamentally threatened by the lack of adequate fertility control. Exponential increases of population will dominate any arithmetic increases, even those brought about by heroic technological initiatives, in the availability of food and resources, as Malthus long ago realized.

Carl Sagan

Cancer, Science, Thinking

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It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.

Carl Sagan

Weed, Marijuana, Civilization

Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.201, Ballantine Books

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Football is a thinly disguised re-enactment of hunting; we played it before we were human.

Carl Sagan

Soccer, Football, Hunting

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.471, Ballantine Books

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All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star stuff.

Carl Sagan

Stars, Blood, Years

Carl Sagan (1973). “Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective”, p.190, Cambridge University Press

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The Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictability, no regularity, are in grave peril. The Universe belongs to those who, at least to some degree, have figured it out.

Carl Sagan

Everyday, Events, Degrees

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

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There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brillance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.

Carl Sagan

Religious, Views, Political

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Religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. ... near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.

Carl Sagan

Religious, Science, Experience

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

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One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.

Carl Sagan

Heart, Exercise, Ideas

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.51, Ballantine Books

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So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations.

Carl Sagan

Our World, Expectations, Ambitious

Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.54, Penguin

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We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.

Carl Sagan

Errors, Giving, Challenges

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.58, Ballantine Books

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Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine the widest range of opinions, to be ruthlessly self-critical. Science is a collective enterprise with the error-correction machinery often running smoothly.

Carl Sagan

Running, Jobs, Mistake

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A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this is our world. It is our responsibility to cherish it. Of all the worlds in our solar system, the only one so far as we know, graced by life.

Carl Sagan

Home, Responsibility, Our World

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Documentary (1990 Update). Episode 6: "Traveller's Tales", 1990.

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Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?

Carl Sagan

Children, Cutting, Winter

Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.400, Ballantine Books

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Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.

Carl Sagan

Exercise, Technology, Wish

Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.245, Ballantine Books

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The cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there ever will be.

Carl Sagan

Cosmos

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In exchange for freedom of inquiry, scientists are obliged to explain their work.

Carl Sagan

Inquiry, Scientist, Obliged

Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.14, Ballantine Books

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What does it mean for a civilisation to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilisation is a few hundred years old ... an advanced civilisation millions of years old is as much beyond us as we are beyond a bushbaby or a macaque

Carl Sagan

Mean, Technology, Years

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.337, Ballantine Books

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For years I've been stressing with regard to UFOs that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Carl Sagan

Stress, Years, Atheism

Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.46, Ballantine Books

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Nobody listens to mathematicians.

Carl Sagan

Mathematician

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.289, Ballantine Books

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We have entered, almost without noticing, an age of exploration and discovery unparalleled since the Renaissance.

Carl Sagan

Discovery, Innovation, Age

Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.186, Ballantine Books

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(When asked merely if they accept evolution, 45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.) When the movie Jurassic Park was shown in Israel, it was condemned by some Orthodox rabbis because it accepted evolution and because it taught that dinosaurs lived a hundred million years ago-when, as is plainly stated at every Rosh Hashonhan and every Jewish wedding ceremony, the Universe is less than 6,000 years old.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, Israel, Years

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.416, Ballantine Books

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Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

Carl Sagan

Groups, Cosmos, Awareness

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

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A stars rich in europium; of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.

Carl Sagan

Stars, Light, Technique

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.117, Ballantine Books

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This oak tree and me, we're made of the same stuff.

Carl Sagan

Tree, Stuff, Made

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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. Information distilled over 4 billion years of biological evolution. Incidentally, all the organisms on the Earth are made essentially of that stuff. An eyedropper full of that liquid could be used to make a caterpillar or a petunia if only we knew how to put the components together.

Carl Sagan

Years, Together, Atoms

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Documentary (1990 Update). Episode 5: "Blues For a Red Planet", 1990.

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Born: November 9, 1934
Died: December 20, 1996
Occupation: Astronomer
Cite this Page: Citation

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