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Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 13

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Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

Goal, Custodians, Purpose

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.76, Ballantine Books

The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.

Science, Order, Principles

The Romans called the Christians atheists. Why? Well, the Christians had a god of sorts, but it wasn't a real god. They didn't believe in the divinity of apotheosized emperors or Olympian gods. They had a peculiar, different kind of god. So it was very easy to call people who believed in a different kind of god atheists. And that general sense that an atheist is anybody who doesn't believe exactly as I do prevails in our own time.

Christian, Atheist, Real

The Earth is a place. It is by no means the only place. It is not even a typical place.

Mean, Typical, Earth

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.26, Ballantine Books

Organic as a dandelion seed, [the ship of our imagination] will carry us to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts

Dream, Imagination, World

I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It's up to you.

Stars, Technology, Two

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". TV Series, Episode 13: Who Speaks for Earth?, 1990.

Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.

Writing, Mathematical Equations, Long

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy.

Comforting, Religion, Finals

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.263, Ballantine Books

There is a report that says that kids who watch violent TV programs tend to be more violent when they grow up. But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children preferentially enjoy watching violent programs?

Children, Growing Up, Kids

We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands.

Stars, Taken, Destiny

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.

Comfort, Cosmos, Fleeting

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.361, Ballantine Books

How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?

Smart, Doe, Murder

"Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence".

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. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.

Science, Religion, Stressed

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.71, Ballantine Books

While our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have, through our brains, a much richer opportunity to blaze new behavioral and cultural pathways on short timescales.

Science, Opportunity, Brain

Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.3, Ballantine Books

Real patriots ask questions.

Real, Patriot, Asks

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.538, Ballantine Books

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.

Simple, Self, Perfect

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.362, Ballantine Books

Nature does not always conform to our predispositions and preferences, to what we deem comfortable and easy to understand.

Doe, Easy, Preference

Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.32, Ballantine Books

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.

Atheist, Doe, Certain

Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.70, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believed by our ancestors.

Thinking, World, Belief

Carl Sagan, Jerald F. TerHorst, Allan J. Mayer, Sharon S. McKern, Laurence J. Peter (1980). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”

In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of punishment has been the Christian churches.

Christian, Atheist, Reality

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.528, Ballantine Books

My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts-the religion of Jesus and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the New Testament. There wasn't much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring document.

Jesus, Views, Two

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Book, Years, Voice

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.

Knowledge, Science, Wish

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Book by Carl Sagan, p. 332, 1980.

He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know.

Believe, Thinking, Atheism

But down deep, at the molecular heart of life we're essentially identical to trees.

Heart, Tree, Identical

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