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Carl Sagan quotes

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“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“You have to know the past to understand the present.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“It is said that men may not be the dreams of the gods, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Every star may be a sun to someone.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“But science is a self-correcting enterprise. To be accepted, all new ideas must survive rigorous standards of evidence.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Thus 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, “Cosmos” - 1980

“We grow up in isolation. Only slowly do we teach ourselves the Cosmos.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

“The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“We are the only species on the planet, so far as we know, to have invented a communal memory stored neither in our genes nor in our brains. The warehouse of that memory is called the library.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“When we look up at night and view the stars, everything we see is shining because of distant nuclear fusion.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Cosmos is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It is, in a way, the opposite of Chaos.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“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.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost between two spiral arms in the outskirts of a galaxy which is a member of a sparse cluster of galaxies, tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are...” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Every thinking person fears nuclear war, and every technological state plans for it. Everyone knows it is madness, and every nation has an excuse.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is coordinated and used.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“They seemed to forget that the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts.” Carl Sagan, “Cosmos” - 1980

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

“if we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been...” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

Related topics

universe stars humanity science knowledge time reality books star information planet madness men slowness truth God past understanding invention indifference

Related sources

Cosmos (22)
The Demon-Haunted World (3)