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Space in general gave us GPS - that's not specifically NASA, but it's investments in space.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
I don't care what town you're born in, what city, what country. If you're a child, you are curious about your environment. You're overturning rocks. You're plucking leaves off of trees and petals off of flowers, looking inside, and you're doing things that create disorder in the lives of the adults around you.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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No astrophysicist would deny the possibility of life. I think we're not creative enough to imagine what life would be like on another planet. Show me a dead alien. Better yet, show me a live one!
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Stephen Hawking's been watching too many Hollywood movies. I think the only kind aliens in Hollywood are the ones created by Steven Spielberg - 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'E.T.,' for example. All other aliens are trying to suck our brains out.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
I'm optimistic. I see no longer people accepting fuzzy thinking in the world. The change is not that people aren't still saying under-informed things. The change is that if you're in power and you say something under-informed, there are people out there with a voice who will take you to task for having done so.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Science is basically an inoculation against charlatans.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Within one linear centimeter of your lower colon there lives and works more bacteria (about 100 billion) than all humans who have ever been born. Yet many people continue to assert that it is we who are in charge of the world.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
We didn't go to the moon to explore or because it was in our DNA or because we're Americans. We went because we were at war and we felt a threat.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Most gravity has no known origin. Is it some exotic particle? Nobody knows. Is dark energy responsible for expansion of the universe? Nobody knows.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
While I'm a big fan of science fiction, especially as rendered in expensive Hollywood blockbusters, it's the real universe that calls to me.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
When everyone agrees to a single solution and a single plan, there's nothing more efficient in the world than an efficient democracy.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Pretty much every plant and animal alive today is the result of eons of natural cross-breeding.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Ever since the Industrial Revolution, investments in science and technology have proved to be reliable engines of economic growth. If homegrown interest in those fields is not regenerated soon, the comfortable lifestyle to which Americans have become accustomed will draw to a rapid close.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
The universe is hilarious! Like, Venus is 900 degrees. I could tell you it melts lead. But that's not as fun as saying, 'You can cook a pizza on the windowsill in nine seconds.' And next time my fans eat pizza, they're thinking of Venus!
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
With regard to robots, in the early days of robots people said, 'Oh, let's build a robot' and what's the first thought? You make a robot look like a human and do human things. That's so 1950s. We are so past that.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
If you're a scientist, and you have to have an answer, even in the absence of data, you're not going to be a good scientist.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Passion is what gets you through the hardest times that might otherwise make strong men weak, or make you give up.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If your ego starts out, 'I am important, I am big, I am special,' you're in for some disappointments when you look around at what we've discovered about the universe. No, you're not big. No, you're not. You're small in time and in space. And you have this frail vessel called the human body that's limited on Earth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
We live in the kind of society where, in almost all cases, hard work is rewarded.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Kids are never the problem. They are born scientists. The problem is always the adults. They beat the curiosity out of the kids. They out-number kids. They vote. They wield resources. That's why my public focus is primarily adults.
Neil deGrasse Tyson -
Everyone should have their mind blown once a day.
Neil deGrasse Tyson