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
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“...that kind of skeptical questioning, don't accept what authority tells you -attitude of science- is also nearly identical to the attitude of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Science is more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking; a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
When you buy a used car, you kick the tires, you look at the odometer, you open up the hood. If you… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them - the sense that we have a… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes-an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
When you realize that no one really knows what they are doing and that everyone is doing the best they can according… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science… — 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
