Carl Sagan Quotes, Stars Quotes, Rocks Quotes

We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Rocks Quotes

If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what until now has been described as 'human rights'? How smart does a chimp have to be before killing him constitutes murder?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Smart Quotes , Animal Quotes

Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense the stirring of a breeze.

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Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Knowledge Quotes , Science Quotes

There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Thinking Quotes

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Data Quotes

He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know.

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My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings - what we sometimes call "mind" - are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Anatomy And Physiology Quotes , Brain Quotes

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

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Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you.

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But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Able Quotes , Imagine Quotes

Curiosity and the urge to solve problems are the emotional hallmarks of our species.

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There is never only ONE of anything in nature.

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Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Cells Quotes , Triumph Quotes

For myself, I like a universe that, includes much that is unknown and, at the same time, much that is knowable. A universe in which everything is known would be static and dull, as boring as the heaven of some weak-minded theologians. A universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a thinking being. The ideal universe for us is one very much like the universe we inhabit. And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Knowledge Quotes , Science Quotes

It is all a matter of time scale. An event that would be unthinkable in a hundred years may be inevitable in a hundred million.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Years Quotes , May Quotes

In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.

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The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.

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The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Cosmos Quotes , Existentialism Quotes

There is no other species on Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Simple Quotes , Self Quotes