Carl Sagan Quotes

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

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.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

You have to know the past to understand the present.

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

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.

I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.

In Mozambique, the story goes, monkeys do not talk, because they know if they utter even a single word some man will come and put them to work.

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.

There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.

We live on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam

The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation

[Kepler] preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, and that is the heart of science.

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.

We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.

If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves.

we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers

The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance.

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

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.

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

The universe forces those who live in it to understand it.

Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.

Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact.

Be grateful everyday for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.

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.

It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others?

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."

Don't judge everyone else by your own limited experience.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.

Organic as a dandelion seed, [the ship of our imagination] will carry us to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.