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Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes - Page 12

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I'm not criticizing the science in Star Wars. That's a waste of everybody's time.

I'm not criticizing the science in Star Wars. That's a waste of everybody's time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, War, Waste
Source: collider.com

Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Legs, Entertainment, Middle
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2012). “Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier”, p.204, W. W. Norton & Company

We think scientific literacy flows out of how many science facts can you recite rather than how was your brain wired for thinking. And it's the brain wiring that I'm more interested in rather than the facts that come out of the curriculum or the lesson plan that's been proposed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thinking, Brain, Facts

Where did the concept of "without borders" come from? No one had that concept until you saw Earth from space, illustrated not by a mapmaker who's color-coding political boundaries; it's illustrated by nature itself and there's land, there's ocean, there's atmosphere.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ocean, Color, Land
Source: blog.sfgate.com

Like a snowplow in overdrive, a supernova shockwave might sweep away any gas clouds in its path.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Clouds, Might, Path
Source: www.pbs.org

I'm not a scientist, I was not a good science student, I felt effectively alienated from science throughout my young life, and it was only when I became an adult that I began to really appreciate from a completely different angle the power of science.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Appreciate, Adults, Different
Source: www.denofgeek.com

We are star dust in the highest exalted way, called by the universe, reaching out to the universe

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, Dust, Way

Who knows how dead Lazarus was? Was Lazarus decomposing in a six-foot grave when Jesus resurrected him? No, he wasn't.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Jesus, Feet, Lazarus
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

I've said multiple times that the world's first trillionaire is going to be the person who exploits the resources of asteroids, the natural resources that are rare on earth and common on selected asteroids. So there are many different reasons you might want to go into space. You might want to spend your honeymoon on the far side of the moon.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Moon, Space, Want
Source: bookriot.com

Emotional truths woven by lawyers in the court of law are apparently more important than the truths of actual events. I have grown to fear for those whose innocence became trapped within the legal system.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Emotional, Law, Important
Neil Degrasse Tyson (2010). “The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist”, p.94, Prometheus Books

If an artist is reaching for the universe as a source of creative muse, then I'm there. I'm gonna say, "Yeah. Here's Saturn. Here's a black hole. Here's twisted space-time. Talk to me. What do you need? What do you want?" And I'll just feed you, because I think only then does science become mainstream - when science becomes a legitimate topic for artists.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Artist, Thinking, Creative
Source: www.complex.com

The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Atheist, Science, Religion

If our solar system is not unusual, then there are so many planets in the universe that, for example, they outnumber the sum of all sounds and words ever uttered by every human who has ever lived. To declare that Earth must be the only planet with life in the universe would be inexcusably bigheaded of us.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Sound, Example, Would Be

Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cutting, Pbs, Support
Twitter post from Oct 04, 2012

I have thoughts every day that are themselves tweets.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Tweet
Source: bookriot.com

When you're enlightened, you don't have to reference other people, because you yourself are enlightened. And that's a better Earth. People can make more informed decisions politically, culturally, personally.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
People, Decision, Earth
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

If humans one day become extinct from a catastrophic collision, there would be no greater tragedy in the history of life in the universe. Not because we lacked the brain power to protect ourselves but because we lacked the foresight. The dominant species that replaces us in post-apocalyptic Earth just might wonder, as they gaze upon our mounted skeletons in their natural history museums, why large headed Homo sapiens fared no better than the proverbially peabrained dinosaurs.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Moon, Skeletons, Museums

Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee’s. To such a species, our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Mom, Dad, Philosophy

Never presume that just because you disagree with an idea that you must be correct.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ideas, Disagree
Twitter post from Jun 08, 2014

It could be that these other civilizations, if they are far more advanced intellectually than we are, would not even measure our existence as a blip on the intelligence radar. They could be so advanced that we are to them what worms are to us.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Civilization, Worms, Existence
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Today secular philosophers call that kind of divine invocation God of the gaps-which comes in handy, because there has never been a shortage of gaps in people's knowledge.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
People, Gaps, Today

In science, if you don't do it, somebody else will. Whereas in art, if Beethoven didn't compose the 'Ninth Symphony,' no one else before or after is going to compose the 'Ninth Symphony' that he composed; no one else is going to paint 'Starry Night' by van Gogh.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Art, Night, Symphony

Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. You cannot build a program of discovery on the assumption that nobody is smart enough to figure out the answer to a problem.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Philosophy, Smart, Ignorance
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.361, W. W. Norton & Company

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.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science, Thinking, Guarantees That

Intelligent life can't be all that common because it's really rare on Earth and especially since we define ourselves to be intelligent. But in the eyes of an alien coming here who has the technology to make it here, they might observe us and conclude that there's no sign of intelligent life on Earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Eye, Intelligent, Technology
"Neil deGrasse Tyson's 'Cosmos'". "Here and Now" with Jeremy Hobson, kuow.org. March 6, 2014.

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