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Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Book by Carl Sagan · 20 quotes · Atheism, Believe, Dystopian

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Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium Quotes

“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
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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
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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
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“Perhaps, in retrospect, there would be little motivation even for malevolent extraterrestrials to attack the Earth; perhaps, after a preliminary survey, they might decide it is more expedient just to be patient for a little while and wait for us to self-destruct.”

LittlesSelfMightWould BeEarthMotivationWaitingPatientBe PatientSurveysRetrospectSelf Destruct
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“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
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“A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.”

TryingMindScienceUnderstandingFreedomSimpleIssuesLessonsAuthorityArgumentAccountsComplexesExperimentsGuaranteesDogmaPublish
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“We are rare and precious because we are alive, because we can think as well as we can. We are privileged to influence and perhaps control our future. I believe we have an obligation to fight for life on Earth - not just for ourselves, but for all those, humans and others, who came before us, and to whom we are beholden, and for all those who, if we are wise enough, will come after.”

IfsThinkingBelieveHumansWellsEnoughEarthFightingI BelieveWiseAliveInfluenceObligationOur FuturePrivileged
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“Perhaps the most wrenching by-product of the scientific revolution has been to render untenable many of our most cherished and most comforting beliefs. The tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors has been replaced by a cold, immense, indifferent Universe in which humans are relegated to obscurity. But I see the emergence in our consciousness of a Universe of a magnificence, and an intricate, elegant order far beyond anything our ancestors imagined. And if much about the Universe can be understood in terms of a few simple laws of Nature, those wishing to believe in God can certainly ascribe those beautiful laws to a Reason underpinning all of Nature. My own view is that it is far better to understand the Universe as it really is than to pretend to a Universe as we might wish it to be.”

HumansGodUniverseAnthropocentric
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“A healthy young man can produce in a week or two enough spermatozoa to double the human population of the Earth. So is masturbation mass murder? How about nocturnal emissions or just plain sex? When the unfertilized egg is expelled each month, has someone died? Should we mourn all those spontaneous miscarriages?”

FeminismSexualityAbortionFundamentalism
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“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.”

ConservationCoalGasolineFossil Fuels
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