In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..." — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
One of the great commandments of science is: 'Mistrust arguments from authority.' — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Arguments from authority carry little weight – authorities have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future.… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
One of the great commandments of science is, 'Mistrust arguments from authority'. (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason and morality.… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Teller contended, not implausibly, that hydrogen bombs keep the peace, or at least prevent thermonuclear war, because the consequences of warfare between… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“Telepathy’ literally means to feel at a distance, just as ‘telephone’ is to hear at a distance and ‘television’ is to see at a… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“On the scale of worlds—to say nothing of stars or galaxies—humans are inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams! — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“[ When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 :] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
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… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no. — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
![“[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless…” quote by Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/0b3/carl-sagan-160_argument_science-is-not-perfect-it-can-be-misused_2558360.jpg)
