Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 3

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• One of the great commandments of science is: 'Mistrust arguments from authority.'

  Carl Sagan

  Argument, Authority, Primates

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

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• The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Ideas, Argument

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

  59 Copy quote

• 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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• To live in the hearts of others is to never die in those we leave behind.

  Carl Sagan

  Heart, Behinds, Dies

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• The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, no doubt by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.

  Carl Sagan

  Running, Night, Ideas

  "Cosmos". Book by Carl Sagan, 1980.

  86 Copy quote

• 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

  170 Copy quote

• One of the greatest gifts adults can give - to their offspring and to their society - is to read to children.

  Carl Sagan

  Education, Children, Giving

  29 Copy quote

• Every star may be a sun to someone.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, May, Sun

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.27, Ballantine Books

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• Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others?

  Carl Sagan

  Impact, Ifs

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• The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Doe, Spirituality

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.54, Ballantine Books

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• [Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Self, Two

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.362, Ballantine Books

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

  Carl Sagan

  Happiness, Strong, Atheist

  53 Copy quote

• The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.

  Carl Sagan

  Weed, Marijuana, Dangerous World

  "Mr. X". Essay by Carl Sagan, hermiene.net. 1969.

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• The fact that someone says something doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean they're lying, but it doesn't mean it's true.

  Carl Sagan

  Education, Lying, Mean

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• Frederick Douglas taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.

  Carl Sagan

  Reading, Slavery, Path

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• Understanding is a kind of ecstasy

  Carl Sagan

  Understanding, Curiosity, Kind

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.17, Ballantine Books

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• If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Inspirational, Nature, Hipster

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.242, Ballantine Books

  80 Copy quote

• The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.

  Carl Sagan

  Beach, Stars, Numbers

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.221, Ballantine Books

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• If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.

  Carl Sagan

  Thinking, Hands, Scientific Method

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.434, Ballantine Books

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• Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?

  Carl Sagan

  Inspirational, Life, Truth

  Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.145, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Learning, Humility

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?" Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003.

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• We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

  Carl Sagan

  Motivational, Education, Ignorance

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.49, Ballantine Books

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• We are the only species on the planet, so far as we know, to have invented a communal memory stored neither in our genes nor in our brains. The warehouse of this memory is called the library

  Carl Sagan

  Memories, Brain, Library

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.305, Ballantine Books

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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

  38 Copy quote

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