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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. 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.”

IfsLongHardCarePurposeParentGoalMistakeOur LivesIgnorancePlanetsEmbraceForgivingErrorsWorthyDeterminedSignificanceFragileCosmicCraveFablesReassuringHard TruthsCustodiansPale Blue Dot
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“The reappearance of the crescent moon after the new moon; the return of the Sun after a total eclipse, the rising of the Sun in the morning after its troublesome absence at night were noted by people around the world; these phenomena spoke to our ancestors of the possibility of surviving death. Up there in the skies was also a metaphor of immortality.”

PeopleWorldNightMorningSunSkyPossibilityReturnMoonMetaphorAbsenceAround The WorldImmortalityRisingSunsetLife And DeathSpokesAncestorSunriseSurvivingEclipseTroublesomeNew MoonMorning AfterCrescentCrescent MoonTotal Eclipse
Author:Carl Sagan
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“In the way that scepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the sceptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.”

IfsWorldWayNeedsTryingHumansRealSometimesFactsFeelingsMightCultureGivenFearHuman BeingsRolesKindnessCasesIssuesAtheismFiguresConcernToolsCriticismRageTendenciesPursueMotiveTemperQuestsSuperstitionsSupporterDeludedBelittlePseudoscienceScepticismScepticConsonantsReal Feelings
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.”

KnowsLittlesDoeSeemsCertainUniverseCausesDealsExistenceDoubtAtheismSubjectsInspireEvidenceUltimateAtheistExtremesUncertaintyCompellingSkepticismGod ExistsExistence Of God
Author:Carl Sagan
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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.”

WorldYearsLongIdeasBigsRunningAgeEarthNightNumbersHalfSunModernOrdinaryInfiniteBillionsScalesCosmosCyclesDedicatedHinduismImmenseRebirthBangsDay And NightCosmologyGreat FaithBrahmaHindu ReligionOrdinary DaysDeath And Rebirth
Author:Carl Sagan
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“For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.”

FirstsHumansStatesHumanityNationsPresidentUnitedHalfUnited StatesMankindRocksMoonSevenHarmIronicConventionalAsiaDroppingApolloLandingExplosivesTokensLifelessMoon LandingSoutheast AsiaSouth AsiaSmall NationsApollo 11Richard'm Nixon
Author:Carl Sagan
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“A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?”

IfsKnowsHumansWould BeEarthValuesHuman BeingsMiracleGreenGrassMarsBladesPatchesCommonplacePricelessSpace ExplorationCosmologyDescendantsBlades Of Grass
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.”

PeopleThinkingHumansReasonScienceReligionBeliefSupportInstitutionsPositive AtheismRelyProphecyVagueAccuracyPropsPropheticReliabilityScience Vs Religion
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.”

LittlesLightEarthScienceStarsDifficultReligiousSpaceViewsPlanetsBlueBoundariesFragileEvidentOur PlanetFadingChauvinismCitadelsCrescentPoints Of Light
Author:Carl Sagan
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