Quotes by Carl Sagan

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

Quotes 81 till 100 of 139.

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  • Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.
    Cosmos
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
    Cosmos
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • 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.
    Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (2011) 64
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
    ― 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 fact that someone says something doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean they're lying, but it doesn't mean it's true.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and low self-esteem interact to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.
    ― 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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  • The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. 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
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy, the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans. But there is no evidence that its functioning is due to anything more than the 1014 neural connections that build an elegant architecture of consciousness.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The Platonists and their Christian successors held the peculiar notion that the Earth was tainted and somehow nasty, while the heavens were perfect and divine. The fundamental idea that the Earth is a planet, that we are citizens of the Universe, was rejected and forgotten.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The sacred truth of science is that there are no sacred truths.
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no place in the endeavor of science.
    Cosmos (1980)
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean.... Recently, we've managed to wade a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting.
    Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990) 03 min 55 sec
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.
    Cosmos (1980) 221
    ― Carl Sagan
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  • 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.
    ― Carl Sagan
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