Carl Sagan Quotes, Motivation Quotes, Self Quotes

Perhaps, in retrospect, there would be little motivation even for malevolent extraterrestrials to attack the Earth; perhaps, after a preliminary survey, they might decide it is more expedient just to be patient for a little while and wait for us to self-destruct.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Motivation Quotes , Self Quotes

An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Agnostic Quotes

Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Space Quotes , Atoms Quotes

Books tap the wisdom of our species -- the greatest minds, the best teachers -- from all over the world and from all our history. And they're patient.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Teacher Quotes , Book Quotes

The difference between physics and metaphysics is not that the practitioners of one are smarter than the practitioners of the other. The difference is that the metaphysicist has no laboratory.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Differences Quotes , Physics Quotes

We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Inspirational Quotes , Motivational Quotes

Cleverly designed experiments are the key.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Keys Quotes

Recent research shows that many children without enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn (“cognitive impairment” ). Children don't have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernourishment — the kind most common among poor people in America — can do it.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Children Quotes , Wind Quotes

Is mankind alone in the universe? Or are there somewhere other intelligent beings looking up into their night sky from very different worlds and asking the same kind of question?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Intelligent Quotes , Night Quotes

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Sky Quotes

You mustn't think of the Universe as a wilderness. It hasn't been that for billions of years," he said. "Think of it more as... ..cultivated.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Years Quotes

Quickly capping 363 oil well fires in a war zone is impossible. The fires would burn out of control until they put themselves out... The resulting soot might well stretch over all of South Asia... It could be carried around the world... [and] the consequences could be dire. Beneath such a pall sunlight would be dimmed, temperatures lowered and droughts more frequent. Spring and summer frosts may be expected... This endangerment of the food supplies... appears to be likely enough that it should affect the war plans.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Summer Quotes , Spring Quotes

Nature does not always conform to our predispositions and preferences, to what we deem comfortable and easy to understand.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Doe Quotes , Easy Quotes

The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Pain Quotes , Important Quotes

Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Self Esteem Quotes , Past Quotes

Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Loyalty Quotes , Spring Quotes

Indeed the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief; if they are incapable of defending it, they are well advised to abandon it. This self-questioning and error-correcting aspect of the scientific method is its most striking property.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Errors Quotes , Self Questioning Quotes

The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Mistake Quotes , Ignorance Quotes

There is a report that says that kids who watch violent TV programs tend to be more violent when they grow up. But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children preferentially enjoy watching violent programs?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Children Quotes , Growing Up Quotes

History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power has destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Truth Quotes , Ignorance Quotes