Carl Sagan Quotes, Thoughtful Quotes, Keys Quotes

Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thoughtful Quotes , Keys Quotes

If intelligence is our only edge, we must learn to use it better, to shape it, to understand its limitations and deficiencies -- to use it as cats use stealth, as katydids use camouflage -- to make it the tool of our survival.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Cat Quotes , Survival Quotes

We live on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Dust Quotes , Sunbeams Quotes

How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Smart Quotes , Doe Quotes

Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , War Quotes

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Suicidal Quotes , Science Quotes

So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Our World Quotes , Expectations Quotes

In a lot of scientists, the ratio of wonder to skepticism declines in time. That may be connected with the fact that in some fields-mathematics, physics, some others-the great discoveries are almost entirely made by youngsters.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Discovery Quotes

At a few hundred kilometers altitude, the Earth fills half your sky, and the band of blue that stretches from Mindanao to Bombay, which your eye encompasses in a single glance, can break your heart with its beauty. Home you think. Home. This is my world. This is where I come from. Everyone I know, everyone I ever heard of, grew up down there, under that relentless and exquisite blue.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Home Quotes , Heart Quotes

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Love Quotes , Inspirational Quotes

Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Office Quotes

It means nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Mean Quotes

There are more potential combinations of DNA [physical forms] than there are atoms in the universe.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Dna Quotes , Atoms Quotes

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Ocean Quotes , Sea Quotes

That kind of skeptical, questioning, "don't accept what authority tells you" attitude of science - is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Attitude Quotes , Thinking Quotes

I find science so much more fascinating than science fiction. It also has the advantage of being true.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Fiction Quotes

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Dream Quotes , Spiritual Quotes

We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Lying Quotes , Imagination Quotes

The secrets of evolution are death and time-the deaths of enormous numbers of lifeforms that were imperfectly adapted to the environment; and time for a long succession of small mutations.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Numbers Quotes

Eratosthenes was the director of the great library of Alexandria, the Centre of science and learning in the ancient world. Aristotle had argued that humanity was divided into Greeks and everybody else, whom he called barbarians and that the Greeks should keep themselves racially pure. He thought it was fitting for the Greeks to enslave other peoples. But Erathosthenes criticized Aristotle for his blind chauvinism, he believed there was good and bad in every nation.

5 years ago

Message Copied

Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Greek Quotes , Humanity Quotes