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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“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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“Religions contradict one another-on small matters, such as whether we should put on a hat or take one off on entering a house of worship, or whether we should eat beef and eschew pork or the other way around, all the way to the most central issues, such as whether there are no gods, one God, or many gods.”

WayShouldMatterReligionHouseReligiousIssuesWorshipHatsEnteringBeefPorkHouses Of Worship
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“He sought a way to preserve the past. John Hershel was one of the founders of a new form of time travel.... a means to capture light and memories. He actually coined a word for it... photography. When you think about it, photography is a form of time travel. This man is staring at us from across the centuries, a ghost preserved by light.”

ThinkingMenWayMeanLightPastFormMemoriesCenturyPhotographyGhostPreservesStaringCaptureTime TravelFounders
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don't conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts. It urges on us a fine balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything - new ideas and established wisdom.”

ThinkingWayIdeasFactsBodyFineBalanceAlternativesUrgesOpennessInvitesNew IdeasConformHypothesisSkepticalWay Of ThinkingScrutinyPreconceptions
Author:Carl Sagan
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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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“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”

WayWantLittlesSaidGodMightAbleScienceReligionUniverseModernMajorsDrawsBiggerProphetAweSubtleReverenceConventionalReservesElegantStressedCosmologyWant HimModern ScienceOrganized ReligionMagnificencePale Blue DotSubtle AtheistAstronomy And Universe
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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“If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business, if there was any competition.”

IfsWayWantFirstsUniverseClearOne ThingDesignCompetitionComplainingExecutionBiblicalOmnipotentSloppyOmniscientRepairing
Book:Contact
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“It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.”

KnowsWorldWayLittlesDoeMadeSaidSometimesReasonLightRomanceSciencePassionBitsWhiteAirMysterySkyFiguresColorLittle BitResearchRedScientistBlueWaveHarmPerceiveSunsetPaleTransparentStirringWhite LightPale Blue DotWavelength
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.”

KnowsWayLittlesLongMadeSeemsEarthStarsStuffWaterReturnOceanSurfaceCosmosShoreCosmicInvitingAnklesWhere We Came
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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“If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.”

IfsWorldWayPersonsIdeasScienceTurnsCoursesUnderstandingSupportToo MuchProgressWonderfulMissingHabitStandingMarkConvincedDataNonsenseNow And ThenSkepticismNew IdeasRulingSkepticalResentSkepticSupport YouOld PersonRuling The World
Author:Carl Sagan
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“[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.”

IfsWayIdeasHardDoneScienceWaitingMinutesPleaseWasteCriticismScientistCriticsHarmFavorsLikesDataGood IdeasNew IdeasFavourDoing YouNeurons
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.”

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Book:Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective
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“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. Information distilled over 4 billion years of biological evolution. Incidentally, all the organisms on the Earth are made essentially of that stuff. An eyedropper full of that liquid could be used to make a caterpillar or a petunia if only we knew how to put the components together.”

IfsWayYearsMadeEarthTogetherUsedStuffInformationEvolutionBillionsAtomsOrganismsComponentsLiving ThingsLiquidCaterpillarsPetuniasBiological Evolution
Author:Carl Sagan
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“What distinguishes our species is thought. The cerebral cortex is in a way a liberation. We need no longer be trapped in the genetically inherited behavior patterns of lizards and baboons: territoriality and aggression and dominance hierarchies. We are each of us largely responsible for what gets put in to our brains. For what as adults we wind up caring for and knowing about. No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain we can change ourselves. Think of the possibilities.”

ThinkingWayNeedsBrainKnowingPossibilityWindBehaviorAdultsMercyResponsibleSpeciesPatternsCaringLiberationTrappedAggressionHierarchyDominanceVastnessCerebralLizardsReptilesBaboonsBehavior Patterns
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Its goal is to find out how the world works, to seek what regularities there may be, to penetrate to the connections of things-from subatomic particles, which may be the constituents of all matter, to living organisms, the human social community, and thence to the cosmos as a whole.”

ThinkingWorldWayHumansMayMatterWholeBodyScienceSocialGoalCommunityConnectionsCosmosOrganismsParticlesPenetrateWay Of ThinkingConstituentsRegularityLiving OrganismsSubatomic Particles
Author:Carl Sagan
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