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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.”

GivingBeliefChallengesHighestErrorsRewardsSeekingAlternativesExplanationContradictionPersistentHeresyResidual
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“When you buy a used car, you kick the tires, you look at the odometer, you open up the hood. If you do not feel yourself an expert in automobile engines, you bring a friend who is. And you do this with something as unimportant as an automobile. But on the issues of the transcendent, of ethics, of morals, of the origins of the world, of the nature of human beings, on those issues should we not insist upon at least equally skeptical scrutiny?”

IfsWorldFeelsShouldHumansLooksUsedHuman BeingsMoralIssuesCarEthicsExpertsKicksEnginesTireSkepticalAutomobileHoodUnimportantTranscendentScrutinyUsed Car
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Indeed the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief; if they are incapable of defending it, they are well advised to abandon it. This self-questioning and error-correcting aspect of the scientific method is its most striking property.”

IfsWellsSelfBeliefAspectCriticismMethodPropertyErrorsAbandonQuestioningIncapablePrevailingScientific MethodCorrectingSelf Questioning
Book:Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science
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“...the idea of a spiritual part of our nature that survives death, the notion of an afterlife, ought to be easy for religions and nations to sell. This is not an issue of which we might anticipate widespread skepticism. People will want to believe it, even if the evidence is meager to nil... compelling testimony ... provides that our personality, character, memory ... resides in the matter of the brain, it is easy not to focus on it, to find ways to evade the weight of the evidence.”

PeopleIfsWayWantBelieveIdeasMatterCharacterMightSpiritualNationsEasyMemoriesBrainIssuesFocusPersonalityOughtEvidenceWeightSellsNotionAfterlifeCompellingSkepticismTestimonyAnticipate
Author:Carl Sagan
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“I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder. It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it. In a first grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least acknowledges it. Something happens between first and twelfth grade, and it's not just puberty. Not only do the schools and the media not teach much skepticism, there is also little encouragement of this stirring sense of wonder. Science and pseudoscience both arouse that feeling. Poor popularizations of science establish an ecological niche for pseudoscience.”

FeelsFirstsBelieveChildrenLittlesFeelingsHappensSchoolI BelievePoorPowerfulEmotionWonderTeachMediaEncouragementThings HappenAcknowledgeGradesClassroomSkepticismThirstVery PowerfulNicheEcologicalStirringPubertySense Of WonderPseudosciencePowerful Emotions
Author:Carl Sagan
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“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”

LoveLifeInspirationalUniverseLove IsLove YouInspirational LifeCreaturesAnd LoveHumanismExistentialismCosmosPregnancyInspirational LoveExistentialOur LoveInsignificantBeing In LoveOnly LoveBeing LovedGreatest LoveVastnessTime LoveThose We LoveBearableBeen In LoveInspiring LoveWorld LoveFree LoveWords LoveBest Ever LoveFound LovePale Blue DotPower And LoveAwe And WonderAmazing LoveScience LoveSmall CreaturesWorld And LovePossible LoveVastness Of Space2 Word Love
Book:Contact
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“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

ScienceDeathReligionUniverseStuffAtheismDyingHumorousAtheistWittyThriveCosmosDelusionSatisfyingSkepticismPersistAgnosticSkepticalSkepticCosmologyThere Is No GodAgnosticismAtheisticFreethinkerReassuringIf There Is A GodPseudoscienceFamous MotivationalThere Being No GodChristian AtheistAnti ReligionAnti AtheistAnti GodSubtle AtheistAstronomy And UniverseSmall CreaturesSatisfying Work
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“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.”

MightMotivationalFacesEducationTechnologyIgnoranceBlowDisasterProgrammingGet AwaySooner Or LaterMixturesPrescriptionsScience And Technology
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

PhilosophyGodSpiritualScienceReligionSpiritualityAtheismSourceScientistProfoundMetaphysicsScience And ReligionInterfaithScience And TechnologyCompatibleImmensityPseudoscienceScience ReligionDisserviceScience Vs ReligionIntricacyGreat ScienceScience TechnologyScientist LifeProfound Spiritual
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”

KnowsShouldMindHumansSometimesHappensLastsScienceReligionChangeInterestingViewsLearningHappenedPositionHumilityEvidenceArgumentScientistPainfulPhysicsHeartacheRecallsSkepticismLast TimeMistakenDnaScience And ReligionSkepticalSkepticScience And TechnologyArt And ScienceScientific MethodModern SciencePhilosophy Of ScienceNatural ScienceScience ReligionPhysical ScienceScientific TruthGreat ScienceScientific FactsScience PhysicsGod And SciencePale Blue DotScientific EvidenceGood ScienceSubtle AtheistScience LoveTheoretical PhysicsBest ScienceDiscovery In ScienceAdvances In ScienceNuclear Arms RaceInformation ScienceProgress In ScienceScientist LifeScience BooksEarth ScienceAdvancement Of ScienceFuture ScienceAtomic StructureScience FairImportance Of Science
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.”

IfsWorldLongReasonRunningTermSpaceResponsibilityAliveCivilizationSurvivalImpactSpeciesPracticalsLong TermStayingExplorationStakesLong RunsVentureSurvivingObligedZealOther WorldsSpace ExplorationStaying AliveSpace Program
Author:Carl Sagan
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“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”

ThinkingKnowsWantBelieveFeelingsRememberDiesAtheismTraditionAncientAtheistDespiteImmortalityAfterlifeWishful ThinkingFreethinkerPale Blue DotSubtle Atheist
Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
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“Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.”

ShouldMayLongUseScienceNationsUnderstandingTermLeaderMoralTalentMoralityIntellectualCriticismLong TermSuicidalShort TermCriteriaConstructiveConvenientVigorous
Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
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