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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

Astronomer

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“If we could travel into the past, it's mind-boggling what would be possible. For one thing, history would become an experimental science, which it certainly isn't today. The possible insights into our own past and nature and origins would be dazzling. For another, we would be facing the deep paradoxes of interfering with the scheme of causality that has led to our own time and ourselves. I have no idea whether it's possible, but it's certainly worth exploring.”

IfsMindIdeasWould BeTodayPastOne ThingInsightNo IdeaParadoxSchemesInterfereExploringDazzlingCausalityExperimental ScienceMind Boggling
Author:Carl Sagan
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“My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts (as well as unable to take such a course of action) if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves. On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, our curiosity and our intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival. In either case, the enterprise of knowledge is consistent with both science and religion, and is essential for the welfare of the human species.”

IfsHumansWellsDoeHandsWould BeActionUniversePassionCoursesBeliefCasesEssentialsSurvivalToolsSpeciesCuriosityTraditionalWelfareEnterpriseConsistentScience And ReligionHuman Species
Book:Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science
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“Teller contended, not implausibly, that hydrogen bombs keep the peace, or at least prevent thermonuclear war, because the consequences of warfare between nuclear powers are now too dangerous. We haven't had a nuclear war yet, have we? But all such arguments assume that the nuclear-armed nations are and always will be, without exception, rational actors, and that bouts of anger and revenge and madness will never overtake their leaders (or military and secret police officers in charge of nuclear weapons). In the century of Hitler and Stalin, this seems ingenuous.”

WarSeemsActorsNationsSecretLeaderCenturyMilitaryDangerousHavensWeaponsConsequenceArgumentMadnessPoliceAssumingRevengeNuclearRationalBombsExceptionOfficersNuclear WeaponsWarfarePolice OfficerNuclear WarHydrogenNuclear PowerSecret PoliceHydrogen Bomb
Author:Carl Sagan
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“If we teach only the findings and products of science - no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be - without communicating its critical method, how can the average person possibly distinguish science from pseudoscience?”

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Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.”

IfsMadeSaidSometimesReasonScienceOrderPrinciplesOughtIllusionDeserveArgumentClaimsConvictionArguingRationalConsistentIrrationalArbitrary
Author:Carl Sagan
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“There are many other (besides testosterone) behaviour-eliciting hormones fundamental for humen well-being, including estrogen and progesterone in females. The fact that complex behavioural patterns can be triggered by a tiny concentration of moleculas coursing through the bloodstream, and that different animals of the same species generate different amounts of these hormones, is something worth thinking about when it's time to judge such matters as free will, individual responsibility, and law and order.”

ThinkingWellsDifferentMatterFactsLawOrderIndividualAnimalResponsibilityJudgingEvolutionAmountFemaleFundamentalsSpeciesComplexesIncludingPatternsTinyWell BeingConcentrationFree WillBehaviourHormonesLaw And OrderTestosteroneIndividual ResponsibilityEstrogenDifferent Animals
Author:Carl Sagan
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“In the middle 1970s an astronomer I admire put together a modest manifesto called "Objections to Astrology" and asked me to endorse it. I struggled with his wording, and in the end found myself unable to sign, not because I thought astrology has any validity whatever, but because I felt (and still feel) that the tone of the statement was authoritarian.”

FeelsStillsEndsTogetherFoundFeltAtheismMiddlePositive AtheismStatementsAdmireToneModestAstrologyObjectionsValidityAstronomersManifestosWording
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe into a single year. If the universe began on January 1st it was not until May that the Milky Way formed. Other planetary systems may have appeared in June, July and August, but our Sun and Earth not until mid-September. Life arose soon after. We humans appear on the cosmic calendar so recently that our recorded history occupies only the last few seconds of the last minute of December 31st.”

IfsWayYearsHumansMayEarthLastsUniverseSunMinutesLocalsSecondsCosmicSeptemberJuneJulyAugustDecemberJanuaryCalendarsLast MinuteMilky WayLocal HistoryJanuary 1st
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Societies will, of course, wish to exercise prudence in deciding which technologies that is, which applications of science are to be pursued and which not. But without funding basic research, without supporting the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake, our options become dangerously limited.”

CoursesWishTechnologyExerciseResearchSakeApplicationPrudencePursuedFundingAcquisitionBasic Research
Book:Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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“We've begun at last to wonder about our origins, star stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here on the planet Earth and perhaps throughout the cosmos. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.”

LongMatterEarthLastsStarsStuffConsciousnessWonderPathPlanetsEvolutionTenSpringAncientBillionsObligationOrganizedCollectionsCosmosAtomsContemplatingPlanet EarthTracing
Author:Carl Sagan
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“We need to reduce military budgets; raise living standards; engender respect for learning; support science, scholarship, invention, and industry; promote free inquiry; reduce domestic coercion; involve the workers more in managerial decisions; and promote genuine respect and understanding derived from an acknowledgement of our common humanity and our common jeopardy.”

NeedsHumanityUnderstandingDecisionCommonSupportMilitaryIndustryStandardsRaisesWorkersGenuineInventionBudgetsInquiryCoercionScholarshipAcknowledgementJeopardyCommon HumanityMilitary Budget
Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
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“But amid much elegance and precision, the details of life and the Universe also exhibit haphazard, jury-rigged arrangements and much poor planning. What shall we make of this: an edifice abandoned early in construction by the architect?”

UniversePoorAtheismDetailsPositive AtheismPlanningAbandonedConstructionArchitectArrangementsEleganceJuryExhibitsPrecisionEdificeRiggedHaphazardPoor PlanningDetails Of Life
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star stuff.”

YearsMadeStarsStuffBloodMaterialsRedYears AgoBillionsTeethGiantsIronGenesCarbonInteriorsMetallicCalcium
Book:Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective
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“I’m struck again by the irony that spaceflight-conceived in the cauldron of nationalist rivalries and hatreds-brings with it a stunning transnational vision. You spend even a little time contemplating the Earth from orbit and the most deeply engrained nationalisms begin to erode. They seem the squabbles of mites on a plum.”

LittlesSeemsEarthVisionHatredIronyNationalismContemplatingRivalryLittle TimeStunningOrbitPlumsErodeCauldronsSquabblesSpaceflight
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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