Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
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Quotes by Carl Sagan
Explore 26 verified and sourced quotes attributed to Carl Sagan. Open any quote for its dedicated page, source details and related topics.
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Selected quotes by Carl Sagan
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
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.
I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.
If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
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