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Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 15

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There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.

There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.

Self, Dumb, Criticism

We can always take but never give.

Giving

You mean am I for it or against it? You think this is a key question I'm going to be asked on Vega, and you want to make sure I give the right answer? Okay. Overpopulation is why I'm in favor of homosexuality and a celibate clergy. A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

Mean, Thinking, Vegas

Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.243, Simon and Schuster

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.

Cosmos

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.25, Ballantine Books

The Hindu religion is the only 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.

Ideas, Numbers, Cosmos

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.284, Ballantine Books

For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday, but there's no support for this appealing idea. The extraordinary claims are not supported by extraordinary evidence.

Civilization, Ideas, Tuesday

"Cosmos/ Encyclopaedia Galactica". Documentary, www.imdb.com. 1980.

The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed.

Law, Atheism, Doe

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

Probably a dozen times since their death I've heard my mother or father, in an ordinary conversational tone of voice, call my name. They had called my name often during my life with them ... It doesn't seem strange to me.

Mother, Father, Science

All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion is unrequited. Surveys suggest that some 95% of Americans are "scientifically illiterate." That's...the same fraction...of slaves who were illiterate before the Civil War.

War, Smart, Passion

We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged.

Ocean, Space, Earth

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". TV Series, Episode 1: The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, 1990.

I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive.

Song, Years, Worry

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.50, Ballantine Books

We seem, these days, much more willing to recognize the perils before us than we were even a decade ago. The newly recognized dangers threaten all of us, equally. No one can say how it will turn out down here. But this is also, we may note, the first time that a species has become able to journey to the planets and the stars. Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense a stirring of the breeze.

Stars, Journey, Sea

On the day that we do discover that we are not alone, our society may begin to evolve and transform in some incredible and wondrous new ways.

May, Our Society, Way

Arguments from authority carry little weight – authorities have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.

Mistake, Past, Way

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.271, Ballantine Books

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.

Atheist, Science, Religion

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.

Book, Cosmos, Voyages

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.307, Ballantine Books

Each of us is a tiny being, permitted to ride on the outermost skin of one of the smaller planets for a few dozen trips around the local star.

Stars, Skins, Dozen

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”, p.30, Ballantine Books

It means nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand.

Atheist, Mean, Religion

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.393, Ballantine Books

When we look up at night and view the stars, everything we see is shinning because of distant nuclear fusion.

Stars, Night, Views

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.249, Ballantine Books

The understanding of the intent of the artist which I can achieve when high sometimes carries over to when I’m down. This is one of many human frontiers which cannabis has helped me traverse.

Artist, Understanding, Sometimes

"Mr. X". Essay by Carl Sagan, hermiene.net. 1969.

If we are merely matter intricately assembled, is this really demeaning? If there's nothing here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?

Doe, Atoms, Matter

Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.108, Penguin

Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away.

Stars, Night, Years

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.120, Ballantine Books

I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars.... And the answer was stunning. It was that the Sun was a star but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light.... The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me.

Religious, Stars, Book

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.

Science, Data, Support You

"The Burden of Skepticism" by Carl Sagan, 1987.

Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.

Book, Magic, Cosmos

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.305, Ballantine Books

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