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Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes - Page 4

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I think everyone should have a personal mission to leave the Earth a better place for them having lived in it and let Earth then take it from there.

I think everyone should have a personal mission to leave the Earth a better place for them having lived in it and let Earth then take it from there.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thinking, Should Have, Earth
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

When scientifically investigating the natural world, the only thing worse than a blind believer is a seeing denier.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
World, Blind, Natural

I don't even think much about politicians. I think about the people in the audience who applaud the politicians. They are your fellow countrymen and they're the ones you live with - that should be who we target for education and enlightenment.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thinking, People, Enlightenment
Source: blog.sfgate.com

We should not be ashamed of not having answers to all questions yet... I'm perfectly happy staring somebody in the face saying, 'I don't know yet, and we've got top people working on it.' The moment you feel compelled to provide an answer, then you're doing the same thing that the religious community does: providing answers to every possible question.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Religious, Science, People
"Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

As areas of knowledge grow, so too do the perimeters of ignorance.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ignorance, Grows, Perimeter
Twitter post from Oct 24, 2012

As religion is now practiced and science is now practiced, there is no intersection between the two. That is for certain. And it’s not for want of trying. Over the centuries, many people—theologians as well scientists - have tried to explore points of intersection. And anytime anyone has declared that harmony has risen up, it is the consequence of religion acquiescing to scientific discovery. In every single case.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Discovery, Two, People
"Why Revive ‘Cosmos?’ Neil DeGrasse Tyson Says Just About Everything We Know Has Changed". Interview with David Freeman, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 4, 2014.

Somehow it's O.K. for people to chuckle about not being good at math. Yet if I said, 'I never learned to read,' they'd say I was an illiterate dolt.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Math, Bad Ass, People

Do you realize that if you fall into a black hole, you will see the entire future of the Universe unfold in front of you in a matter of moments and you will emerge into another space-time created by the singularity of the black hole you just fell into?

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Fall, Space, Black

Science is not there for you to cherry pick ... You can decide whether or not to believe in it but that doesn’t change the reality of an emergent scientific truth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Believe, Reality, Cherries
"Neil DeGrasse Tyson To Science Deniers: ‘Science Is Not There For You To Cherry Pick’" by Katie Valentine, thinkprogress.org. March 10, 2014.

Aliens might be surprised to learn that in a cosmos with limitless starlight, humans kill for energy sources buried in the sand

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cosmos, Might, Energy

People think about life from day-to-day rather than thinking about life as something that invents a new kind of tomorrow.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thinking, People, Tomorrow
Source: blog.sfgate.com

He invited people to sign a petition that demanded either strict control of, or a total ban on, dihydrogen monoxide.... Yes, 86 percent of the passersby voted to ban water (H2O) from the environment. Maybe that's what really happened to all the water on Mars.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science, People, Water
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.220, W. W. Norton & Company

After 50 years of television, there's no other conclusion the aliens could draw, but that most humans are neurotic, death-hungry, dysfunctional idiots.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Years, Television, Aliens
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.242, W. W. Norton & Company

You will never find scientists leading armies into battle. You just won’t. Especially not astrophysicists -we see the biggest picture there is. We understand how small we are in the cosmos. We understand how fragile and temporary our existence is here on Earth. We understand there are bigger problems we need to solve as a species than what God you pray to.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Army, Battle, Needs

Everything we do understand about the universe - the periodic table of elements, Einstein's laws, Newton's laws, all of chemistry, all of biology - that's 4 percent of the universe. We got to the moon on the 4 percent we do understand. We landed on Mars on the 4 percent we do understand. So the day we crack the nut of the rest of that 95 percent... Oh my gosh.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Moon, Law, Nuts
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Italy valued cathedrals while Spain valued explorers. So worldwide, five times as many people speak Spanish than Italian.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Atheist, Italian, People
Twitter post from Oct 11, 2010

What would aliens say when told earthlings shift clocks twice a year to fool themselves into thinking there's more sunlight?

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Thinking, Years, Fool
Twitter post from Nov 04, 2013

Many people are unhappy because there was some point in their past where there was some glory day, and as they get older they're not creating more glory days. They reflect on a time that they will never reach again, and it brings some level of dissatisfaction into their lives. I have circumvented that by simply making incumbent upon myself to always be productive in ways that are consistent with my physical body, my mental state of knowledge, but more important, my presumed growth in wisdom that would come with age.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Past, People, Growth
Source: www.esquire.com

Knowledge of the natural world and how it works should be counted as fundamental to informed governance. You can't have a functioning democracy, if the electorate is under-informed or, worse, mis-informed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Democracy, Fundamentals, World
Source: collider.com

To achieve this density of a neutron star at home, just cram a herd of 50 million elephants into the volume of a thimble.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, Home, Science

Apart from the obvious advantages of having ice to melt, filter, then drink, you can also break apart the water's hydrogen from its oxygen. Use the hydrogen and some of the oxygen as active ingredients in rocket fuel and keep the rest of the oxygen for breathing. And in your spare time between space missions, you can always go ice skating on the frozen lake created with the extracted water.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Oxygen, Ice, Breathing
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.214, W. W. Norton & Company

Science literacy is the artery through which the solutions of tomorrow's problems flow.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Flow, Tomorrow, Problem
Interview with Jim Clash, uk.askmen.com. August 23, 2012.

I would request that my body in death be buried not cremated, so that the energy content contained within it gets returned to the earth, so that flora and fauna can dine upon it, just as I have dined upon flora and fauna during my lifetime

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Energy, Body, Earth

We hunger for significance, for signs that our personal existence is of special meaning to the universe. To that end, we’re all too eager to deceive ourselves and others, to discern a sacred image in a grilled cheese sandwich or find a divine warning in a comet

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Cheese Sandwiches, Special, Warning

George Bush, within a week of this [the 9/11 attacks], in a speech, attempting to distinguish US from the Muslim fundamentalists, said Our God is the God who named the stars. The problem is: two-thirds of all stars that have names, have Arabic names. I don't think he knew this. That would confound the point that he was making.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, Thinking, Names

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