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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“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.”

IfsHumansHas BeensWould BePoliticalSocialReligiousViewsEconomicConditionsPhysicsExperimentsRejectsWillingnessHuman ConditionRejectedHypothesisEleganceConfrontation
Author:Carl Sagan
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“You mean am I for it or against it? You think this is a key question I'm going to be asked on Vega, and you want to make sure I give the right answer? Okay. Overpopulation is why I'm in favor of homosexuality and a celibate clergy. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.”

ThinkingWantGivingMeanIdeasAnswersKeysOkayFavorsGood IdeasHomosexualityVegasFanaticismClergyPropensityRight AnswersHereditaryOverpopulation
Book:Contact
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“The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and low self-esteem interact to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin.”

KindSelfDreamRunningPovertyGenerationsSelf EsteemIgnoranceBearsCostLowsMachinesEsteemPerpetualHopelessnessGearsGrindLow Self EsteemIlliteracy
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Quickly capping 363 oil well fires in a war zone is impossible. The fires would burn out of control until they put themselves out... The resulting soot might well stretch over all of South Asia... It could be carried around the world... [and] the consequences could be dire. Beneath such a pall sunlight would be dimmed, temperatures lowered and droughts more frequent. Spring and summer frosts may be expected... This endangerment of the food supplies... appears to be likely enough that it should affect the war plans.”

WorldShouldWellsMayWarEnoughMightWould BeFirePlansImpossibleSummerSpringConsequenceSouthOilExpectedAround The WorldZoneSunlightAsiaTemperatureSuppliesFrostDroughtBurn OutWar ZonesFood SupplySouth AsiaEndangermentWar Plans
Author:Carl Sagan
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“These are all cases of proved or presumptive baloney. A deception arises, sometimes innocently but collaboratively, sometimes with cynical premeditation. Usually the victim is caught up in a powerful emotion -- wonder, fear, greed, grief. Credulous acceptance of baloney can cost you money; that's what P. T. Barnum meant when he said, 'There's a sucker born every minute.' But it can be much more dangerous than that, and when governments and societies lose the capacity for critical thinking, the results can be catastrophic -- however sympathetic we may be to those who have bought the baloney.”

ThinkingMaySaidSometimesGovernmentBornLosesResultsPowerfulGriefEmotionWonderCasesMinutesDangerousAcceptanceCostCapacityVictimGreedCaughtCriticalAriseDeceptionCynicalCaught UpCritical ThinkingSympatheticSuckerGovernment And SocietyBaloneyPowerful EmotionsPremeditation
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life. There are not many different kinds; there's only one kind. It uses about fifty fundamental biological building blocks, organic molecules.”

LooksKindDifferentUseEarthBuildingFundamentalsBlockFiftyDifferent KindsMoleculesBuilding Blocks
Book:The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
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“The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.”

IdeasReasonValuesOpinionCasesDemocracySpecialCenturyHonestyPositionDemandStandardsEvidenceArgumentDebateThriveCivilizedHumanistPrivilegedAdequateGreeceSecrecyIncarnationVigorousUnconventionalVantage Point
Author:Carl Sagan
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“There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”

WorldHumansEarthSpaceTinyAstronomyFollyCosmosPaleDemonstrationConceitEarth DayVastnessCosmic ConsciousnessBeautiful EarthEarth And SkyPale Blue DotInspirational EarthAcross The UniverseMy SpaceAstronomy And UniverseHuman Folly
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the "opportunity of exchanging error for truth"; and if it's wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in its "collision with error." If we know only our own side of the argument, we hardly know even that: it becomes stale, soon learned by rote, untested, a pallid and lifeless truth.'”

IfsKnowsBookTruthEvilOpportunityUnderstandingSidesLibertyOpinionArgumentErrorsPhilosopherDeeperPeculiarDeprivedMillsStaleCollisionLifelessExchangingDeeper UnderstandingSilencing
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Scientists can routinely predict a solar eclipse, to the minute, a millennium in advance. You can go to the witch doctor to lift the spell that causes your pernicious anaemia, or you can take Vitamin B12. If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate. If you're interested in the sex of your unborn child, you can consult plumb-bob danglers all you want . . . but they'll be right, on average, only one time in two. If you want real accuracy . . . try amniocentesis and sonograms. Try science.”

IfsWantTryingChildrenTwoRealScienceSexCausesMinutesPrayingDoctorsScientistOur ChildrenAverageLiftsYour ChildrenWitchSpellsOne TimeBobAccuracyUnbornVitaminsEclipseMillenniumPerniciousPolioUnborn ChildWitch DoctorsSolar EclipseAnaemia
Author:Carl Sagan
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“When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a characteristic odour that signals the survivors to remove it from the hive. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid. What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid? Then no matter how strapping and vigourous it might be, it is carried kicking and screaming out of the hive.”

IfsMatterMightHappensScienceDiesReleaseCharacteristicsRemoveSurvivorBeesSignalsCorpsesAcidKickingHivesPheromones
Author:Carl Sagan
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“We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true and the beautiful. But it would be a great mistake to ignore where we have come from in our attempt to determine where we are going.”

WayDoeWould BeBeautifulHumanityMistakeDetermineDenyTemporaryAcidGreat Mistakes
Book:Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective
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“We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.”

KnowsYearsFirstsMadeSelfHappensEarthChoicesUniverseNextSpaceDependsEvolutionOceanDestructionBillionsLegacyCosmosHeritageMeaninglessCosmicTime And SpaceHere And NowAwakenedSelf DestructionVastness
Author:Carl Sagan
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