Quotessence
Home / Authors / Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes

Astrophysicist

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsPeopleUniverseScienceThinkingEarthKnowsWorldSpaceWantWayScientistHumansMindStarsYearsNeedsAstrophysicsMightMoon

Famous Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes

“Scientific truth is not what any one scientist puts forth. It can be that, but it is generally not. It is the sum of multiple studies that all lean in the same direction in their results conducted by different people at different times of different nationalities with different competitive urges who all end up getting the same result. Then you have an emerging scientific truth, and then you put that in the textbooks, and that will never be shown to be wrong later on.”

PeopleDifferentEndsResultsStudyTruth IsScientistUrgesMultipleDifferent PeoplesNationalityEmergingTextbooksDifferent TimesScientific TruthDifferent Nationalities
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“Civilization just takes it as a given that the whole world was flooding. Then science came and you had geology and modern astrophysics, and time became well understood going back billions of years. So enlightened religious people, as a necessity, had to shed the magical elements of the Bible. A little known fact is that Thomas Jefferson did just that. There's something called the Jefferson Bible. It's not widely publicized because it sort of conflicts with certain people's ideas of what the founding fathers were.”

PeopleWorldYearsWellsLittlesIdeasWholeFactsCertainFatherGivenReligiousKnownModernCivilizationConflictElementsUnderstoodBillionsWhole WorldEnlightenedShedFoundingGeologyFloodingAstrophysics
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“People put clips of me up. There are quotes from me. I've written books, of course. I'm on Twitter. There are dozens of ways to consume my offerings, and a lecture in a large venue is really only just one of them. So I have no concerns about how much access people would have to me no matter what is the capacity of your pocketbook.”

PeopleWayBookMatterCoursesWrittenCapacityConcernNo Matter WhatAccessJust OneDozenOfferingLecturesVenuesClipPocketbooks
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“There are two kinds of comments that I get. One is, oh, you're such a natural up there, and the other one is, you're working hard up there. And the ones who say I'm working hard are teachers, they're the educators; they're the people who are the performers. It's a huge investment of my psycho-emotional energy to pull that off and to make it look smooth.”

PeopleLooksKindTwoHardEnergyNaturalTeacherEmotionalHugeInvestmentCommentPerformersSmoothEducatorPsychoEmotional Energy
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“People say, oh we just need charismatic leaders to continue on to Mars. Now we've gone to the moon, of course Mars is next. No. Mars was never, of course, next. It is next if you think we went to the moon because we're explorers, but if you know we went to the moon because we were at war then we're never going to Mars. There's no military reason to do it, to justify the expenditure.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsNeedsWarReasonCoursesNextLeaderGoneMilitaryMoonJustifyMarsExplorersExpendituresCharismatic
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“When NASA makes discoveries they are profound and they make headlines, everyone takes notice. It drives dialogue and, today, it would drive the blogosphere. It would drive the projects the kids do in school. So you wouldn't even need programs to try and stimulate curiosity. You wouldn't need programs to try to convince people that science literacy is good. Because they're going to want to participate on this epic adventure that we call space exploration.”

PeopleWantNeedsTryingKidsTodaySchoolSpaceAdventureProjectsDiscoveryProgramProfoundCuriosityDialogueConvinceExplorationEpicLiteracyHeadlinesSpace ExplorationNasaScience Literacy
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“I have a very high respect for professional comedians. What they do astonishes me. You have to be really smart and absorb everything, repackage it, bring it back to the person, and make them laugh at themselves. I can make people laugh during my talks because they didn't come to have me make them laugh. It's added value. So my job is way easier than that of a professional comic.”

PeopleValuesLaughingSmartComicComedianMaking People LaughReally Smart
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“Many people are unhappy because there was some point in their past where there was some glory day, and as they get older they're not creating more glory days. They reflect on a time that they will never reach again, and it brings some level of dissatisfaction into their lives. I have circumvented that by simply making incumbent upon myself to always be productive in ways that are consistent with my physical body, my mental state of knowledge, but more important, my presumed growth in wisdom that would come with age.”

PeopleImportantAgePastGrowthGloryUnhappyConsistentProductiveDissatisfaction
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“While the Copernican principle comes with no guarantees that it will forever guide us to cosmic truths, it's worked quite well so far: not only is Earth not in the center of the solar system, but the solar system is not in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy is not in the center of the universe, and it may come to pass that our universe is just one of many that comprise a multiverse. And in case you're one of those people who thinks that the edge may be a special place, we are not at the edge of anything either.”

PeopleThinkingWayWellsMayEarthScienceUniversePrinciplesCasesForeverSpecialEdgesGuidesJust OneGuaranteesCosmicGalaxySolar SystemGuarantees ThatSpecial PlacesMilky WayMultiverseCenter Of The Universe
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.”

PeopleNeedsFirstsStatesBigsChurchCasesTeacherAtheismEvolutionIgnorantAmendmentsBad AssBangsJerseyViolationFirst AmendmentChurch And StateDinosaursNew JerseyIlliterateFreedom Of ReligionArkNoah's Ark
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“I would teach how science works as much as I would teach what science knows. I would assert (given that essentially, everyone will learn to read) that science literacy is the most important kind of literacy they can take into the 21st century. I would undervalue grades based on knowing things and find ways to reward curiosity. In the end, it's the people who are curious who change the world.”

PeopleKnowsWorldWayKindImportantEndsGivenTeachKnowingCenturyRewardsCuriosityCuriousChanging The WorldGrades21st CenturyLiteracyKnowing ThingsScience Literacy
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“... informed ignorance provides the natural state of mind for research scientists at the ever-shifting frontiers of knowledge. People who believe themselves ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the cosmos.”

PeopleMindBelieveStatesNaturalKnownIgnoranceResearchScientistBoundariesIgnorantCosmosState Of MindShiftingFrontiers
Book:Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
Create image

“I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsLooksImportantFactsBigsNightUniverseStarsSkyLook UpAtomsNight SkyAstrophysics
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“Robots are important also. If I don my pure-scientist hat, I would say just send robots; I'll stay down here and get the data. But nobody's ever given a parade for a robot. Nobody's ever named a high school after a robot. So when I don my public-educator hat, I have to recognize the elements of exploration that excite people. It's not only the discoveries and the beautiful photos that come down from the heavens; it's the vicarious participation in discovery itself.”

PeopleIfsImportantSchoolBeautifulGivenHeavenPureElementsHigh SchoolDiscoveryScientistDataHatsExplorationParticipationRobotsEducatorParadesMind BlowingVicarious
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“When you visit countries that don't nurture these kinds of ambitions, you can feel th absence of hope...people are reduced to worrying only about that day's shelter or the next day's meal. It's a shame, even a tragedy, how many people do not get to think about the future. Technology coupled with wise leadership not only solves these problems but enables dreams of tomorow.”

PeopleThinkingFeelsKindCountryProblemDreamNextTechnologyWorryWiseAmbitionTragedyShameSolveAbsenceMealsShelterNurtureNext Day
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview—not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases… but people prefer reassurance to research.”

PeopleWorldProblemTodayEffortAcceptingCasesSupportGroupsResearchEvidenceSuitsWorldviewWorld TodayValidityMind BlowingReassuranceLarge GroupsGrapevine
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
Create image

“By the way, were we to find life-forms on Venus, we would probably call them Venutians, just as people from Mars would be Martians. But according to rules of Latin genitives, to be “of Venus” ought to make you a Venereal. Unfortunately, medical doctors reached that word before astronomers did. Can’t blame them, I suppose. Venereal disease long predates astronomy, which itself stands as only the second oldest profession.”

PeopleWayLongWould BeFormOughtDiseaseDoctorsBlameProfessionMedicalAstronomyLatinMarsVenusAstronomersMartiansMedical Doctor
Book:Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
Create image