Carl Sagan Quotes, Lonely Quotes, Dark Quotes

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Lonely Quotes , Dark Quotes

Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine the widest range of opinions, to be ruthlessly self-critical. Science is a collective enterprise with the error-correction machinery often running smoothly.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Running Quotes , Jobs Quotes

Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Mathematics Quotes , Certain Quotes

I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future, can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Civilization Quotes

While our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have, through our brains, a much richer opportunity to blaze new behavioral and cultural pathways on short timescales.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Opportunity Quotes

The usual rejoinder to someone who says 'They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Galileo' is to say 'But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown'.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Usual Quotes

But down deep, at the molecular heart of life we're essentially identical to trees.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Heart Quotes , Tree Quotes

A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Miracle Quotes , Would Be Quotes

It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Emotional Quotes , Courageous Quotes

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

Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Writing Quotes , Mathematical Equations Quotes

We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like the inside of a volcano. In many stories, both realms are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by gods or devils. Monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the Universe. Few found the similarity suspicious.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Running Quotes , Kings Quotes

How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact visiting other worlds

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Other Worlds Quotes , Lucky Quotes

Where did God come from? If we decide this is an unanswerable question why not save a step and conclude that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Religion Quotes , Why Not Quotes

Goddard represented a unique combination of visionary dedication and technological brilliance. He studied physics because he needed physics to get to Mars. In reading the notebooks of Robert Goddard, I am struck by how powerful his exploratory and scientific motivations were - and how influental speculative ideas, even erroneous ones, can be on the shaping of the future.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Notebook Quotes , Motivation Quotes

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stupid Quotes , Believe Quotes

We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true and the beautiful. But it would be a great mistake to ignore where we have come from in our attempt to determine where we are going.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Mistake Quotes

The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason and morality. We have them, the other animals don't, and -- so the argument goes -- that's that.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Animal Quotes , Culture Quotes

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Knowledge Quotes , Science Quotes

Since World War II, Japan has spawned enormous numbers of new religions featuring the supernatural.... In Thailand, diseases are treated with pills manufactured from pulverized sacred Scripture. Witches are today being burned in South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental Meditation] organization has an estimated valuation of $3 billion. For a fee, they promise to make you invisible, to enable you to fly.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , War Quotes