Carl Sagan Quotes

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are.

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself

The universe is soo huge, it would be a pity if we were alone

For thousands of years humans were oppressed - as some of us still are - by the notion that the universe is a marionette whose strings are pulled by a god or gods, unseen and inscrutable.

The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little goodevidence.

An atheist is someone who is certain that God doesn't exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.

Curiosity and the urge to solve problems are theemotional hallmarks of our species

The secrets of evolution, are time and death. There's an unbroken thread that stretches from those first cells to us.

Civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.

We will know which stars to visit. Our descendants will then skim the light years, the children of Thales and Aristarchus, Leonardo and Einstein.

Meanwhile the Cosmos is rich beyond measure: the total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.

Could we possible manage the next phase of human history without first dealing with this penchant for dehumanizing the adversary?

Neuroanatomy, political history, and introspection all offer evidence that human beings are quite capable of resisting the urge to surrender to every impulse of reptilian core of brain.

[an encounter in space] "Some celestial event. No--no words--no words to describe it. Poetry! They should have sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful...I had no idea. I had no idea.

Once upon a time, we soared into the Solar System. For a few years. Then we hurried back. Why? What happened? What was 'Apollo' really about?

Everything not forbidden by the laws of nature, he assured her - quoting a colleague down the hall - is mandatory.

Birds know, better than humans, not to spoil the nest.

The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.

Intuitive: The word conveys, I think, a diffuse annoyance at our inability to understand how we come by such knowledge.

Black holes collect problems faster than they collect matter.

But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why, there would be no end of divine beings.

Advertising teaches people not to trust their judgment. Advertising teaches people to be stupid.

The same few dozen organic molecules are used over and over again in biology for the widest variety of functions.