Quotes by Carl Sagan with world

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist and author

Lived from: 1934 - 1996

Category: Scientists | Writers (Contemporary) Country: FlagUnited States

Born: 9 november 1934 Died: 20 december 1996

  • There is a lurking fear that some things are 'not meant' to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human being to make.
  • We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
  • History is full of people who out of fear or ignorance or the lust for power have destroyed treasures of immeasurable value which truly belong to all of us. We must not let it happen again.
  • If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
  • There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.
  • Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children.
  • Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
  • They (i. e., the Pythagoreans) did not advocate the free confrontation of conflicting points of view. Instead, like all orthodox religions, they practised a rigidity that prevented them from correcting their errors.
  • One of the greatest gifts adults can give - to their offspring and to their society - is to read to children.
  • You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe.
  • Every thinking person fears nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madness, and every country has an excuse.
  • Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever it has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?
  • One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
  • 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.
  • A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clear
  • A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.
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  • A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this is our world. It is our responsibility to cherish it. Of all the worlds in our solar system, the only one so far as we know, graced by life.
    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990) 58 min 56 sec
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • Anything you don't understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it.
    Contact (1985) Ch. 10 (p. 166)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • 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.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • It is clear that the nations of the world now can only rise and fall together. It is not a question of one nation winning at the expense of another. We must all help one another or all perish together.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that there is more to the world than was generally believed by our ancestors.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
    Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.
    Essay as Mr. X (1969)
    ― Carl Sagan
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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.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.
    Cosmos (1980) 217
    ― Carl Sagan
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Carl Sagan?

The two most famous quotes from Carl Sagan are:

  • "A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this is our world. It is our responsibility to cherish it. Of all the worlds in our solar system, the only one so far as we know, graced by life."
  • "All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value."

When did Carl Sagan live?

Carl Sagan was born in 1934 and died in the year 1996.