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Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 8

All Quotes Acceptance Age Art Astronomy Atheism Atheist Authority Awareness Balance Belief Challenges Character Childhood Children Church Community Compassion Consciousness Creation Criticism Culture Curiosity Darkness Death Doubt Earth Education Enthusiasm Evidence Evolution Giving God Greek Heart History Home Humanity Humility Ignorance Imagination Injury Inspirational Judging Knowledge Learning Life Lifetime Love Loyalty Lying Magic Mathematics Memories Moon Morning Motivation Motivational Nature Observation Opportunity Pain Passion Past Perspective Philosophy Physics Prejudice Purpose Reading Reality Rejection Religion Responsibility Risk Romance Running Science Science And Technology Spirituality Spring Stupidity Survival Teaching Technology Time Today Truth Understanding Universe Vision Waiting War Water Weakness Winter Writing

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.

Truth, Self, Aperture

.. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot'

Thinking, Blood, Rivers

Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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?

Prophet, Subtle, Bigger

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

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.

Successful, Meteorology, World

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

We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.

Animal, Men, Thinking

Carl Sagan (1973). “Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective”, p.5, Cambridge University Press

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.

Cells, Triumph, Littles

Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.

Superstitions, Way, Bluffs

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.65, Ballantine Books

We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock.

Rocks, Humanity, World

The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species.

Teacher, Inspire, Mind

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

We humans look rather different from a tree. Without a doubt we perceive the world differently than a tree does. But down deep, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical.

Heart, Tree, Doubt

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.57, Ballantine Books

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

Ambition, Science, Perfect

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.230, Ballantine Books

We were wanderers from the beginning.

Wanderers

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.14, Ballantine Books

I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.

Philosophy, Religion, Doctrine

Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.130, Penguin

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.

Science, Acceptance, Ideas

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.391, Ballantine Books

Extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof.

Claims, Proof, Extraordinary

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

Technology, Civilization, Elements

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.

Religious, Issues, House

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

In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.

Emptiness, Found, Contact

"Fictional character: Alien". "Contact", 1997.

The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.

Stars, Fleeting, Ephemeral

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.241, Ballantine Books

It will not be we who reach Alpha Centauri, and the other nearby stars. It will be a species very like us - but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses.

Stars, Weakness, Thrive

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.355, Ballantine Books

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

Cosmos, Existentialism, Benign

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Book by Carl Sagan, p. 250, 1980.

We are made of stellar ash. Our origin and evolution have been tied to distant cosmic events. The exploration of the cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery.

Discovery, Self, Events

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.348, Ballantine Books

A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions.

Biblical, Thinking, Years

"Cosmos". Book by Carl Sagan (p . 213 -214),

We are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not.

Smart, Pieces, Enough

If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

Loyalty, Community, Cosmos

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.371, Ballantine Books

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