Carl Sagan Quotes
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Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But we now have the opportunity to discover, for the first time, the way the universe is in fact constructed as opposed to how we would wish it to be constructed.
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I've written a number of books that have to do with the evolution of humans, human intelligence, human emotions.
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Do we, holding that the gods exist,deceive ourselves with insubstantial dreamsand lies, while random careless chance andchange alone control the world?
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I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.
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Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
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The history of science-especially physics-has in part been the tension between the natural tendency to project our everyday experience on the universe and the universe's noncompliance...
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The origin of life happened in significantly less than 500 million years. ...Six days was once a popular hypothesis. ...A process that happens quickly is a process that is in some sense likely... this evidence suggests that the origin of life was in some sense easy, in some sense sitting in the laws of physics and chemistry.
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This image of four spectra is taken from one of Huggins's publications. ...You can see that the Comet Winnecke resembles olive oil more than it does Comet Brorsen.
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Most of the people that I deal with are human. So I've had a lot of experience with that.
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Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world.
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There is no question that religions have historically played the role of making people contented with their lot. ...such a doctrine would be very appealing to the ruling classes of a society. ...Many societies, for this reason alone, encourage the contentment with your lot that the religious premise of heaven affords.
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It’s hard to kill a creature once it lets you see its consciousness.
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The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.
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Every thinking person fears nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madness, and every country has an excuse.
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I think people in power have a vested interest to oppose critical thinking.
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If there's nothing in here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?
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Something dreadful happens to students between first and twelfth grades, and it's not just puberty.
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If a marker were to be erected today, it might read, in homage to his scientific courage: 'He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions.'
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The old man made himself look hard at the Raven and saw that it was not a great bird from the sky but the work of men like himself. This first encounter turned out to be peaceful. The men of the La Pérouse expedition were under strict orders to treat with respect any people they might discover, an exceptional policy for its time and after.
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If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.
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Astronomically, the U. S. S. R. and the United States are the same place.
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A googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number 1... no matter what number you have in mind, infinity is larger still.
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The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer.
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Suppose your father... walked into this room at the ordinary human pace of walking. And suppose just behind him was his father. How long would we have to wait before the ancestor who enters the now-open door is a creature who normally walked on all fours? The answer is a week.