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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes

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Famous Carl Sagan Quotes

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

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Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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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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“At a few hundred kilometers altitude, the Earth fills half your sky, and the band of blue that stretches from Mindanao to Bombay, which your eye encompasses in a single glance, can break your heart with its beauty. Home you think. Home. This is my world. This is where I come from. Everyone I know, everyone I ever heard of, grew up down there, under that relentless and exquisite blue.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldHeartHomeEyeEarthHalfBreakHeardSkyGrewBandGrew UpHundredBlueGlancesExquisiteRelentlessBreak Your HeartBombay
Book:Contact
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“Eratosthenes was the director of the great library of Alexandria, the Centre of science and learning in the ancient world. Aristotle had argued that humanity was divided into Greeks and everybody else, whom he called barbarians and that the Greeks should keep themselves racially pure. He thought it was fitting for the Greeks to enslave other peoples. But Erathosthenes criticized Aristotle for his blind chauvinism, he believed there was good and bad in every nation.”

WorldShouldHumanityNationsPureDirectorsBlindLibraryAncientGreekDividedCentreGood And BadFittingBarbariansChauvinismAncient WorldAlexandria
Author:Carl Sagan
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“We invest far off places with a certain romance... Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game; none of them lasts for ever. Your own life, or your bands, or even your species - might be owed to a restless few, drawn by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands, and new worlds.”

WorldLongMightLastsRomanceCertainGamesRichLandBandSummerSpeciesWinterNew WorldHarvestRestlessCravingPlentiful
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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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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“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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“One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.”

WorldHeartMayIdeasSelfReasonFactsExerciseBuiltCriticismTestsErrorsSuperstitionsMachinerySlidesOutside WorldCorrectingPseudoscienceCharacterizationSelf CriticismSelf Indulgent
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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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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“Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and after looking about for a few thousand years declares itself in possession of eternal truths. But in a world that is changing as fast as ours, this is a prescription for disaster. No nation, no religion, no economic system, no body of knowledge, is likely to have all the answers for our survival. There must be many social systems that would work far better than any now in existence. In the scientific tradition, our task is to find them.”

WorldYearsKindBodyCultureNationsSocialAnswersExistenceHalfFourEconomicStageThousandEternalSurvivalTraditionTasksFollowingPossessionBillionsDisasterArrogantThousand YearsPrescriptionsEconomic SystemsSocial SystemsNewcomers
Author:Carl Sagan
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“So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations.”

WorldHas BeensPurposeUniverseExpectationsOur WorldDisappointedCosmicAmbitiousGalaxySolar System
Book:The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
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“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

WorldHelpingDangerousProduceNeededDrugMadInsightPotWeedMarijuanaSerenitySensitivityFellowshipOutrageousBudWar On DrugsCannabisImpedimentsHempMedical MarijuanaSmoking WeedDangerous WorldUtilizationFunny MarijuanaFunny WeedStonersSmokin WeedGreat WeedCool Marijuana
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death.”

WorldCoursesCausesSuccessfulCenturySafeSufficientSteersMeteorologyMicrobiology
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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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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“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 reappearance of the crescent moon after the new moon; the return of the Sun after a total eclipse, the rising of the Sun in the morning after its troublesome absence at night were noted by people around the world; these phenomena spoke to our ancestors of the possibility of surviving death. Up there in the skies was also a metaphor of immortality.”

PeopleWorldNightMorningSunSkyPossibilityReturnMoonMetaphorAbsenceAround The WorldImmortalityRisingSunsetLife And DeathSpokesAncestorSunriseSurvivingEclipseTroublesomeNew MoonMorning AfterCrescentCrescent MoonTotal Eclipse
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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“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, no doubt by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.”

WorldYearsLongIdeasBigsRunningAgeEarthNightNumbersHalfSunModernOrdinaryInfiniteBillionsScalesCosmosCyclesDedicatedHinduismImmenseRebirthBangsDay And NightCosmologyGreat FaithBrahmaHindu ReligionOrdinary DaysDeath And Rebirth
Author:Carl Sagan
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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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“Since World War II, Japan has spawned enormous numbers of new religions featuring the supernatural.... In Thailand, diseases are treated with pills manufactured from pulverized sacred Scripture. Witches are today being burned in South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental Meditation] organization has an estimated valuation of $3 billion. For a fee, they promise to make you invisible, to enable you to fly.”

WorldWarTodayReligionNumbersMeditationPromiseDiseaseOrganizationSacredSouthAtheistBillionsScriptureInvisibleEnormousTreatedWar Of The WorldsJapanWitchWorld War IiWorld War IBurnedSouth AfricaPillsFeesTranscendentalThailandValuationTranscendental MeditationSacred Scripture
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Chlorine is a deadly poison gas employed on European battlefields in World War I. Sodium is a corrosive metal which burns upon contact with water. Together they make a placid and unpoisonous material, table salt. Why each of these substances has the properties it does is a subject called chemistry.”

WorldDoeWarTogetherScienceWaterSubjectsMaterialsTablesPropertyContactSubstanceWar Of The WorldsPoisonGasChemistryMetalsSaltWorld War IEmployedBattlefieldsPlacidSodiumPoison GasChlorine
Book:Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science
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“Quickly capping 363 oil well fires in a war zone is impossible. The fires would burn out of control until they put themselves out... The resulting soot might well stretch over all of South Asia... It could be carried around the world... [and] the consequences could be dire. Beneath such a pall sunlight would be dimmed, temperatures lowered and droughts more frequent. Spring and summer frosts may be expected... This endangerment of the food supplies... appears to be likely enough that it should affect the war plans.”

WorldShouldWellsMayWarEnoughMightWould BeFirePlansImpossibleSummerSpringConsequenceSouthOilExpectedAround The WorldZoneSunlightAsiaTemperatureSuppliesFrostDroughtBurn OutWar ZonesFood SupplySouth AsiaEndangermentWar Plans
Author:Carl Sagan
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“There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”

WorldHumansEarthSpaceTinyAstronomyFollyCosmosPaleDemonstrationConceitEarth DayVastnessCosmic ConsciousnessBeautiful EarthEarth And SkyPale Blue DotInspirational EarthAcross The UniverseMy SpaceAstronomy And UniverseHuman Folly
Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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