Quotessence
Home / Authors / Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

Astronomer

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceUniverseIfsCosmosHumansReligionEarthWorldStarsThinking

Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“Your religion assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they'll behave. You want people to believe in God so they'll obey the law. That's the only means that occurs to you: a strict secular police force, and the threat of punishment by an all-seeing God for whatever the police overlook. You sell human beings short.”

PeopleWantNeedsBelieveHumansMeanChildrenLawForceHuman BeingsSeeingPoliceSellsAssumingThreatPunishmentBehaveBelieve In GodSecularStrictPolice ForceBoogeyman
Book:Contact
Create image

“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.”

WorldHas BeensPurposeUniverseExpectationsOur WorldDisappointedCosmicAmbitiousGalaxySolar System
Book:The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
Create image

“Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”

IfsFeelsHumansPainSufferingAnimalCompassionToo MuchRegretEssentialsBehaviorGuiltExperimentsBehaveDistinctionVegetarianPretendingVeganAnimal RightsPretensionHumans And AnimalsAnimal BehaviorAnimal Suffering
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“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.”

WorldHelpingDangerousProduceNeededDrugMadInsightPotWeedMarijuanaSerenitySensitivityFellowshipOutrageousBudWar On DrugsCannabisImpedimentsHempMedical MarijuanaSmoking WeedDangerous WorldUtilizationFunny MarijuanaFunny WeedStonersSmokin WeedGreat WeedCool Marijuana
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business, if there was any competition.”

IfsWayWantFirstsUniverseClearOne ThingDesignCompetitionComplainingExecutionBiblicalOmnipotentSloppyOmniscientRepairing
Book:Contact
Create image

“Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

HelpingDarkPlanetsLonelyCosmosCosmicElsewherePaleOur PlanetHintsObscurityPlanet EarthVastnessSpecksPale Blue DotAcross The UniverseAstronomy And UniverseBlue PlanetOur Planet EarthVastness Of Space
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Create image

“Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death.”

WorldCoursesCausesSuccessfulCenturySafeSufficientSteersMeteorologyMicrobiology
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“There is much that science doesn't understand, many mysteries still to be resolved. In a Universe tens of billions of light-years across and some ten or fifteen billion years old, this may be the case forever. We are constantly stumbling on new surprises”

YearsMayStillsLightUniverseCasesForeverMysteryTenSurpriseBillionsFifteenStumblingLight Years
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“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.”

PeopleCountryGovernmentIgnoranceTaughtHabitCostSafeEssentialsResponsibleLeavingSkepticismNeverthelessCitizenshipPrerequisitesCost Of Education
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.”

PeopleSaidGovernmentPoliticalProcessRiskEssentialsBenefitsArgumentWorriedEducateStressedMisled
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“Coal, oil and gas are called fossil fuels, because they are mostly made of the fossil remains of beings from long ago. The chemical energy within them is a kind of stored sunlight originally accumulated by ancient plants. Our civilization runs by burning the remains of humble creatures who inhabited the Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came on the scene. Like some ghastly cannibal cult, we subsist on the dead bodies of our ancestors and distant relatives. - Dr. Carl Sagan”

YearsFirstsHumansKindLongMadeBodyRunningEarthEnergyMillionsCivilizationSceneCreaturesRemainsPlantAncientHumbleOilBurningFuelGasChemicalsAncestorSunlightLong AgoDrsConservationCultCoalFossilsFossil FuelGhastlyCannibalOil And GasBurning Fossil FuelsSagan
Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
Create image

“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. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”

IfsThinkingWorldShouldHumansMayChildrenCountryReasonHandsFormScienceSpiritCertainCommunityOpinionDarknessVirtueRightsTeachingHumilityCitizensAuthorityOur ChildrenMethodBillsPositive AtheismEducatedDemonSkepticismBeing HumanDecencyUnwillingBill Of RightsScientific MethodCommunity Spirit
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.”

KnowsWorldWayLittlesDoeMadeSaidSometimesReasonLightRomanceSciencePassionBitsWhiteAirMysterySkyFiguresColorLittle BitResearchRedScientistBlueWaveHarmPerceiveSunsetPaleTransparentStirringWhite LightPale Blue DotWavelength
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
Create image

“A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet. One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time.”

HumansWarAgeEarthScienceSpaceConsciousnessPlanetsOceanLonelySpeciesVulnerableDevelopingRevelationsExplorationOrganismsDoomedFiniteTime And SpaceSpace ExplorationHuman Species
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“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?”

MayChildrenLittlesEnoughNextCuttingEatingOur ChildrenFundamentalsPlantCuriosityWinterSeedsDrivenCornCutting Off
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“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.”

YearsStillsReasonLightHappensTodayFormNightCoursesStarsCitiesClearSkyModernCivilizationBreathsMovedEntertainmentAstronomyPracticalsAncestorArtificialPollutionCalendarsNight SkyJadedDwellersTwinklingNocturnalArtificial LightTwinkling Stars
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

KnowsWayLittlesLongMadeSeemsEarthStarsStuffWaterReturnOceanSurfaceCosmosShoreCosmicInvitingAnklesWhere We Came
Author:Carl Sagan
Create image