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Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes - Page 2

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If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.

If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Reality, People, Decision
Twitter post from Sep 15, 2014

If you're really successful at bullshitting, it means you're not hanging around enough people smarter than you.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Liars, Lying, Mean

It's better to understand something than to memorize something.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
"Neil deGrasse Tyson on Pluto, Science Groupies, and Killing Insects". Interview with Scott Raab, www.esquire.com. April 16, 2015.

Does it mean, if you don't understand something, and the community of physicists don't understand it, that means God did it? Is that how you want to play this game? Because if it is, here's a list of things in the past that the physicists at the time didn't understand [and now we do understand] [...]. If that's how you want to invoke your evidence for God, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on - so just be ready for that to happen, if that's how you want to come at the problem

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Moving, Ignorance, Mean
"The Moon, the Tides and why Neil DeGrasse Tyson is Colbert's God". "The Science Studio" with Roger Bingham, January 20, 2011.

I know of no time in human history where ignorance was better than knowledge.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ignorance, Humans, Knows

Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Motivational, Inspiring, Success
Twitter post from Jan 23, 2012

To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of bullshit.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Bullshit, Empowering, Empower Yourself

No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don't ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Clueless, Learning, School
Interview with Jim Clash, uk.askmen.com. August 23, 2012.

The theory of evolution, like the theory of gravity, is a scientific fact.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Theory Of Evolution, Cosmos, Facts
"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey". Documentary, 2014.

To learn more about science, turn off your electronic device and go outside and look around a bit. Nature is calling you. Go on. The internet will still be here.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Looks, Calling, Goes On

On Friday the 13th, April 2029, an asteroid large enough to fill the Rose Bowl as though it were an egg cup will fly so close to Earth that it will dip below the altitude of our communication satellites. We did not name this asteroid Bambi. Instead, we named it Apophis, after the Egyptian god of darkness and death.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Friday, Communication, Bad Ass
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.261, W. W. Norton & Company

Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's really there.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Doors, Pretending, Findings
"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey/ Unafraid of the Dark". Documentary, June 2014.

I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of this Universe, we are in this Universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small, because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, Night, Sky
"Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the most astounding fact in the universe" by Elizabeth Flock, www.washingtonpost.com. March 5, 2012.

If factual information upsets you, then you are creating a world that is not embracing objective truths, and that's not how you advance a democracy.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Creating, Upset, Democracy
Source: www.chicagotribune.com

You don't want to raise a kid in a culture where the kid who asks the most questions is annoying. You want a culture where the kid who asks the most questions gets awards and gets another piece of cake.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Kids, Awards, Cake

To assert that the universe has a purpose implies the universe has intent. And intent implies a desired outcome. But who would do the desiring? And what would a desired outcome be? That carbon-based life is inevitable? Or that sentient primates are life's neurological pinnacle? Are answers to these questions even possible without expressing a profound bias of human sentiment? Of course humans were not around to ask these questions for 99.9999% of cosmic history. So if the purpose of the universe was to create humans then the cosmos was embarrassingly inefficient about it.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Profound, Cosmos, Purpose

Why can't we summon the ingenuity and courage of the generations that came before us? The dinosaurs never saw that asteroid coming. What's our excuse?

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Generations, Dinosaurs, Asteroids
"Finally, Neil deGrasse Tyson and “Cosmos” Take on Climate Change" by Chris Mooney, www.motherjones.com. May 5, 2014.

I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Intelligent, Earth, Examination
"Neil deGrasse Tyson Says Aliens Might Find Humans Too Stupid To Contact" By Meredith Bennett-Smith, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 17, 2013.

We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Children, Teaching, Years

I'd like to live in a world where people embrace objective truths rather than be offended by them.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
People, Objective Truth, World
Source: www.chicagotribune.com

Just to settle it once and for all: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The egg, laid by a bird that was not a chicken.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Funny, Eggs, Bird
Twitter post from Jan 29, 2013

Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. There’s no wild cows.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cows, Stores, Consumption
"Neil deGrasse Tyson Tells GMO Critics to 'Chill Out'" by Chris Mooney, www.motherjones.com. July 30, 2014.

You can't have people making decisions about the future of the world who are scientifically illiterate. That's a recipe for disaster. And I don't mean just whether a politician is scientifically literate, but people who vote politicians into office.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Mean, People, Office
"Neil deGrasse Tyson On Literacy, Curiosity, Education, And Being 'In Your Face'". Interview with Linda Holmes, www.npr.org. February 25, 2010.

Whether or not you can never become great at something, you can always become better at it. Don't ever forget that! And don’t say “I’ll never be good”. You can become better! and one day you’ll wake up and you’ll find out how good you actually became.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Mind Blowing, One Day, Wake Up

When students cheat on exams, it's because our school system values grades more than students value learning.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Education, Wisdom, Cheating
Twitter post from Apr 14, 2013

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