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Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes - Page 8

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All Plutophiles are based in America. If you go to other countries, they have much less of an attachment to either the existence or preservation of Pluto as a planet.

All Plutophiles are based in America. If you go to other countries, they have much less of an attachment to either the existence or preservation of Pluto as a planet.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Country, Attachment, America

I have yet to see a successful prediction about the physical world that was inferred or extrapolated from the content of any religions document.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Successful, World, Predictions
Neil Degrasse Tyson (2010). “The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist”, p.183, Prometheus Books

The school system is constructed to praise you if you get high grades. And if you get straight A's, you're the one that everyone puts forward, and they prognosticate that the straight-A person is the one most likely to succeed, because that's the way the school system is constructed and conceived.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
School, Getting High, Way
"Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Cosmos Shouldn't Make You Feel Small". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. February 27, 2014.

I've known from long ago that the universe was calling me. If you were one of those annoying adults that said, 'Oh, what are you gonna be when you grow up?' I would say, 'Astrophysicist .' And then they'd walk away real quickly.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Growing Up, Real, Long Ago
"Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘When A Nation Dreams Big, Its Citizenry Dreams Big’". Interview with Cara Santa Maria, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 28, 2012.

We can trace the elements. They were forged in the centers of high-mass stars that went unstable at the ends of their lives, they exploded, scattered their enriched contents across the galaxy, sprinkled into gas clouds that then collapsed and formed stars and planets and life.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stars, Science, Clouds

After your first job, is anyone asking you what your GPA was? No, they don't care. They ask you: Are you a good leader? Do people follow you? Do you have integrity? Are you innovative? Do you solve problems? Somebody's got to do that homework and redesign the educational system so that it can actually train people to be successful in life.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Jobs, Educational, Integrity
"Global Ideas from Pluto's Challenger". May 21, 2009.

I don't see why there is no intelligent alien life in the universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Intelligent, Alien Life, Aliens
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

The greatest of people that have ever been in society, they were never versions of someone else. They were themselves.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
People, Versions

Whenever people have used religious documents to make accurate predictions about our base knowledge of the physical world, they have been famously wrong.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Religious, Science, People
Neil Degrasse Tyson (2010). “The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist”, p.183, Prometheus Books

I'd rather enjoy the money, and then be buried, offering my body back to the flora and fauna of which I have dined my whole life.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Offering, Body, Flora And Fauna
Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. November 13, 2011.

If all that you see, do, measure and discover is the will of a deity, then ideas can never be proven wrong, you have no predictive power, and you are at a loss to understand the principles behind most of the fundamental interconnections of nature.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Religious, Science, Loss

You don't need to be a scientist to know Earth's age or that life evolved. You just need be one who embraces objective truths

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Age, Needs, Objective Truth
Twitter post from Feb 21, 2013

I would expunge the word "aptitude" from our vocabulary, because if you're interested in something, that's all that matters. You'll spend more time doing it, that than anything else, and possibly more time doing it than anybody else. And that's all that matters, because in the end, if you love what you do, you'll be your best at it compared to anything else you might have chosen as a career.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Vocabulary, Careers, Aptitude
Source: www.avclub.com

I grew up in New York City where there is no night sky. Nobody has a relationship with the sky, because, particularly in the day, there was air pollution and light pollution, and you look up, and your sight line terminates on buildings. You know the sun and maybe the moon, and that's about it. So what happens is that I am exposed to the night sky as you would see it from a mountaintop, and I'm just struck by it. Suppose I grew up on a farm where I had that sky every night of my life - then you're not going to be struck by it. It's just the wallpaper of your nighttime dome.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
New York, Moon, Night
Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ignorance, Discovery, Imagination
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.77, W. W. Norton & Company

FM signals and those of broadcast television...travel out to space at the speed of light. Any eavesdropping alien civilization will know all about our TV programs (probably a bad thing), will hear all our FM music (probably a good thing), and know nothing of the politics of AM talk-show hosts (probably a safe thing).

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Light, Civilization, Space

When we see animals doing remarkable things, how do we know if we're simply seeing tricks or signs of real intelligence? Are talented animals just obeying commands, or do they have some kind of deeper understanding? One of the biggest challenges for animal researchers is to come up with tests that can distinguish between the two.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Real, Animal, Two
"How Smart Are Animals?". "NOVA scienceNOW", www.pbs.org. February 9, 2011.

WhenIWasYourAge: We had to open all doors by ourselves. None of them knew we were coming.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Technology, Doors
Twitter post from Nov 28, 2014

The people talking on their cell phone and following GPS instructions to where grandma's house is saying I don't need space - excuse me, that's how you know where grandma lives, and when to make the left turn.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Grandma, Gps, Phones
Source: cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com

The news media reported the $250 million as an unthinkably huge waste of money and proclaimed that something was wrong with NASA. The result was an investigation and a congressional hearing. Not to defend failure, but $250 million is not much more than the cost to produce Kevin Costner's film flop Waterworld.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Media, Cost, News

Photons are accurately and legitimately described as waves and particles at the same time. They are genuine wavicles.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science, Wave, Genuine

Note, however, that you cannot simply add temperatures the way you can add volumes or weights. Two people in bed, each with body temperatures of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, do not normally create a 197.2 degree under-the-cover oven.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science, Two, People

Only when creative people take ownership of cosmic discovery will society accept science as the cultural activity that it is.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Discovery, People, Creative
Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. November 13, 2011.

In any case, the leading edge of our "on purpose" radio signals is 30 light-years away and, if intercepted, may mend the aliens' image of us based on the radio bubble of our television shows. But this will happen only if the aliens can somehow determine which type of signal comes closer to the truth of who we are, and what our cosmic identity deserves to be.

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Light, Years, Identity
Neil deGrasse Tyson (2007). “Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries”, p.245, W. W. Norton & Company

That is a cosmic perspective, that's correct. And in tandem with that, you will never find people who truly grasp the cosmic perspective such as the entire community of astrophysicists leading nations into battle. No, that doesn't happen. When you have a cosmic perspective, there's this little speck called Earth and you say you're going to do what? You're on this side of a line in the sand and you want to kill people for what?

Neil deGrasse Tyson
People, Perspective, Community
"Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why The Cosmos Shouldn't Make You Feel Small". "Fresh Air" with Dave Davies, www.npr.org. February 27, 2014.

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