Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 9

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

If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous

If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate.

Thinking, Superstitions, Too Much

Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.298, Ballantine Books

If the constellations had been named in the twentieth century, I suppose we would see bicycles and refrigerators in the sky.

Century, Biking, Tandem Bikes

"Cosmos".

The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.

Dark, Science, Perfect

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

Sunset, Romance, Doe

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.154, Ballantine Books

There are lots of ways to communicate what we know, but few ways to communicate what we feel. Music is one way to communicate emotions.

Music, Way, Emotion

Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.49, Univ. Press of Mississippi

Where did God come from? If we decide this is an unanswerable question why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question.

Religion, Why Not, Steps

In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?

Atheist, Religion, Wish

I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future, can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

Thinking, Civilization, Support

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

It is clear that the nations of the world now can only rise and fall together. It is not a question of one nation winning at the expense of another. We must all help one another or all perish together.

Peace, Fall, Winning

Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. 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, Light

The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.

Dream, Children, Future

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.90, Ballantine Books

Every time you look up at the sky, every one of those points of light is a reminder that fusion power is extractable from hydrogen and other light elements, and it is an everyday reality throughout the Milky Way Galaxy.

Reality, Light, Sky

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

Two, Government, Firsts

"Fictional character: S.R. Hadden". "Contact", www.imdb.com. 1997.

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses.

Laughter, Doing You, Doe

Broca's Brain ch. 5 (1979)

Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation

Animal, Men, Creation

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

Indeed the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief; if they are incapable of defending it, they are well advised to abandon it. This self-questioning and error-correcting aspect of the scientific method is its most striking property.

Errors, Self Questioning, Criticism

Carl Sagan (1979). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”, Random House Inc

She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

Messages, Vastness, Small Creatures

Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.430, Simon and Schuster

In college, in the early 1950s, I began to learn a little about how science works, the secrets of its great success, how rigorous the standards of evidence must be if we are really to know something is true, how many false starts and dead ends have plagued human thinking, how our biases can colour our interpretation of evidence, and how often belief systems widely held and supported by the political, religious and academic hierarchies turn out to be not just slightly in error, but grotesquely wrong.

Religious, College, Thinking

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.98, Ballantine Books

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.

Country, Ignorance, Government

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.546, Ballantine Books

It took the Church until 1832 to remove Galileo 's work from its list of books which Catholics were forbidden to read at the risk of dire punishment of their immortal souls.

Book, Punishment, Soul

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.62, Ballantine Books

Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.

Atheist, War, Science

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.31, Ballantine Books

We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.

Ocean, Self, Years

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Documentary (1990 Update). Episode 1: "The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean", 1990.

I would suggest that science is, at least in my part, informed worship.

Worship, Cosmology

Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.48, Penguin

That kind of skeptical, questioning, "don't accept what authority tells you" attitude of science - is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other.

Attitude, Thinking, Democracies Have

Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.130, Univ. Press of Mississippi

A general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the god portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy much less of a universe.

Views, World, Tiny

Carl Sagan (2006). “The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God”, p.48, Penguin

You May Also Like: