So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We humans look rather different from a tree. Without a doubt we perceive the world differently than a tree does. But down… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Much of human history can, I think, be described as a gradual and sometimes painful liberation from provincialism, the emerging awareness that… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The Apollo pictures of the whole Earth conveyed to multitudes something well known to astronomers: On the scale of the worlds -… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds. Sailors on… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they're, of course, based… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
At a few hundred kilometers altitude, the Earth fills half your sky, and the band of blue that stretches from Mindanao to… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion… — 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
One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We invest far off places with a certain romance... Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game; none of them lasts for… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Chlorine is a deadly poison gas employed on European battlefields in World War I. Sodium is a corrosive metal which burns upon… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Eratosthenes was the director of the great library of Alexandria, the Centre of science and learning in the ancient world. Aristotle had… — 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… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Its goal is to find out how… — 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
