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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“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 The tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors has been replaced by a cold, immense, indifferent Universe in which humans are relegated to obscurity.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.”

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Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
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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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“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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“The Apollo pictures of the whole Earth conveyed to multitudes something well known to astronomers: On the scale of the worlds - to say nothing of stars or galaxies - humans are inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal”

WorldHumansWellsWholeEarthFilmStarsKnownRocksScalesMetalsSolitaryMultitudesObscureWell KnownGalaxyApolloLumpsAstronomersInconsequential
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“There is no other species on Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything.”

HumansDoeSelfReasonEarthNaturalSimplePerfectToolsSpeciesInventionWorking ItSelectionOngoingNot PerfectNatural SelectionCorrectingCerebralMisusedHuman Inventions
Book:Cosmos
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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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“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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“We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.”

WayHumansWellsMayCultureUniverseStarsNumbersRocksPerspectiveInfinitePositive AtheismBillionsCirclesHuman LifeMetalsGalaxyPonderingCosmologyLarge NumbersMilky WayHunkHumdrum
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?”

LifeInspirationalMindHumansLooksBookTruthScienceReligionUniverseHuman BeingsAcceptingTeachHumilityInvolvedScientistHumbleSkepticismOpen MindLiteralFallibilityPale Blue DotHumble Man
Book:Conversations with Carl Sagan
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“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

PeopleInspirationalWritingYearsHumansPersonsMadeStillsBookFunnyTogetherReadingVoiceDarkBreakMagicTreeCitizensProofInventionFlatsGlancesFlexibleBindingShacklesAssemblageHuman Inventions
Book:Cosmos
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“Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”

WorldHumansScienceUniverseWishHuman BeingsWonderKnowledgeMysteryComfortAspectPrejudiceStructureAweCosmosSuperstitionsSkepticismFleetingPenetrateSense Of WonderPale Blue Dot
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Your religion assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they'll behave. You want people to believe in God so they'll obey the law. That's the only means that occurs to you: a strict secular police force, and the threat of punishment by an all-seeing God for whatever the police overlook. You sell human beings short.”

PeopleWantNeedsBelieveHumansMeanChildrenLawForceHuman BeingsSeeingPoliceSellsAssumingThreatPunishmentBehaveBelieve In GodSecularStrictPolice ForceBoogeyman
Book:Contact
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“Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us.”

IfsFeelsHumansPainSufferingAnimalCompassionToo MuchRegretEssentialsBehaviorGuiltExperimentsBehaveDistinctionVegetarianPretendingVeganAnimal RightsPretensionHumans And AnimalsAnimal BehaviorAnimal Suffering
Author:Carl Sagan
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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
Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
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“If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”

IfsThinkingWorldShouldHumansMayChildrenCountryReasonHandsFormScienceSpiritCertainCommunityOpinionDarknessVirtueRightsTeachingHumilityCitizensAuthorityOur ChildrenMethodBillsPositive AtheismEducatedDemonSkepticismBeing HumanDecencyUnwillingBill Of RightsScientific MethodCommunity Spirit
Author:Carl Sagan
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“A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet. One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time.”

HumansWarAgeEarthScienceSpaceConsciousnessPlanetsOceanLonelySpeciesVulnerableDevelopingRevelationsExplorationOrganismsDoomedFiniteTime And SpaceSpace ExplorationHuman Species
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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“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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“If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what until now has been described as 'human rights'? How smart does a chimp have to be before killing him constitutes murder?”

IfsHumansDoeHas BeensHumanityAnimalConsciousnessRightsCapableSmartMurderKillingHuman RightsAbstractionChimpanzees
Book:Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
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