--- title: "15 Errors Quotes By Carl Sagan" description: "15 Errors quotes by Carl Sagan. Plus more from Carl Sagan and more Errors sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b8/carl-sagan-160_atheism_eratosthenes-s-only-tools-were-sticks-ey_1459920.jpg" --- > [Eratosthenes's only tools were sticks, eyes, feet, and brains; plus a zest for experiment. With those tools he correctly deduced the circumference…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/eratosthenes-s-only-tools-were-sticks-eyes-feet-and-brains-plus-a/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b8/carl-sagan-160_atheism_eratosthenes-s-only-tools-were-sticks-ey_1459920.jpg) > [The fossil record implies trial and error, the inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with a Great Designer (though not a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-error-the-inability-to-anticipate/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1cc/carl-sagan-160_anticipate_the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-erro_132790.jpg) > [We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/we-are-prodding-challenging-seeking-contradictions-or-small/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/986/carl-sagan-160_alternatives_we-are-prodding-challenging-seeking-cont_544663.jpg) > [Indeed the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief; if they are incapable of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/indeed-the-reasoned-criticism-of-a-prevailing-belief-is-a-service-to/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/070/carl-sagan-160_abandon_indeed-the-reasoned-criticism-of-a-preva_2460864.jpg) > [They (i. e., the Pythagoreans) did not advocate the free confrontation of conflicting points of view. Instead, like all orthodox religions, they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/they-i-e-the-pythagoreans-did-not-advocate-the-free-confrontation-of/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b3d/carl-sagan-160_confrontation_they-i-e-the-pythagoreans-did-not-advoca_1406342.jpg) > [Absolute certainty will always elude us. We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/absolute-certainty-will-always-elude-us-we-will-always-be-mired-in/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/783/carl-sagan-160_absolute-certainty_absolute-certainty-will-always-elude-us_3142781.jpg) > [Our perceptions are fallible. We sometimes see what isn't there. We are prey to optical illusions. Occasionally we hallucinate. We are error-prone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/our-perceptions-are-fallible-we-sometimes-see-what-isn-t-there-we-are/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cf1/carl-sagan-160_errors_our-perceptions-are-fallible-we-sometime_1497012.jpg) > [The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-error-an-inability-to-anticipate/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/carl-sagan-160_anticipate_the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-erro_1944350.jpg) > [In college, in the early 1950s, I began to learn a little about how science works, the secrets of its great success,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to-learn-a-little-about-how/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/carl-sagan-160_academic_in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to_2841763.jpg) > [The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fragile-planet-is-then/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be0/carl-sagan-160_care_the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fr_830907.jpg) > [The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus we see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-thousands-of-light-years-closer/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de0/carl-sagan-160_dynamics_the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-tho_3088985.jpg) > ['In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-english-philosopher-john-stuart/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de5/carl-sagan-160_argument_in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-en_2206731.jpg) > [One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/one-of-the-reasons-for-its-success-is-that-science-has-a-built-in/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b99/carl-sagan-160_characterization_one-of-the-reasons-for-its-success-is-th_707470.jpg) > [Is it fair to be suspicious of an entire profession because of a few bad apples? There are at least two important…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire-profession-because-of-a-few/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b6/carl-sagan-160_ability_is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire_2207911.jpg) > [Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine the widest range of opinions,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it-is-the-job-of-the-scientist/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a7/carl-sagan-160_collectives_scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it_2695917.jpg) ## Other authors on Errors ## More by Carl Sagan > [It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/it-is-sometimes-said-that-scientists-are-unromantic-that-their/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-prediction-of-nuclear-winter-is-drawn-not-of-course-from-any/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-suppression-of-uncomfortable-ideas-may-be-common-in-religion-or/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [“Telepathy’ literally means to feel at a distance, just as ‘telephone’ is to hear at a distance and ‘television’ is to see at a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/telepathy-literally-means-to-feel-at-a-distance-just-as-telephone-is/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [“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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/on-the-scale-of-worlds-to-say-nothing-of-stars-or-galaxies-humans-are/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/every-one-of-us-is-in-the-cosmic-perspective-precious-if-a-human/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/in-our-time-we-have-sifted-the-sands-of-mars-we-have-established-a/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [ “\[ When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 :\] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/when-a-religious-couple-wrote-to-sagan-about-fulfilled-prophecies-he/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Don't judge everyone else by your own limited experience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/don-t-judge-everyone-else-by-your-own-limited-experience/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/books-permit-us-to-voyage-through-time-to-tap-the-wisdom-of-our/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/we-live-on-a-hunk-of-rock-and-metal-that-circles-a-humdrum-star-that/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/a-tiny-blue-dot-set-in-a-sunbeam-here-it-is-that-s-where-we-live-that/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/any-sufficiently-crisp-question-can-be-answered-by-a-single-binary/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/humans-who-enslave-castrate-experiment-on-and-fillet-other-animals/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) > [Every star may be a sun to someone.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/every-star-may-be-a-sun-to-someone/) [Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/carl-sagan/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/errors/carl-sagan/#itemlist", "name": "15 Errors Quotes By Carl Sagan", "numberOfItems": 15, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Eratosthenes's only tools were sticks, eyes, feet, and brains; plus a zest for experiment. 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We are prey to optical illusions…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not with a Designer of a more remote and indirect temperament)", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-error-an-inability-to-anticipate/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/carl-sagan-160_anticipate_the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-erro_1944350.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/carl-sagan-160_anticipate_the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-erro_1944350.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/df6/carl-sagan-160_anticipate_the-fossil-record-implies-trial-and-erro_1944350.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "In college, in the early 1950s, I began to learn a little about how science works, the secrets of its great success, how rigorous the standards of evidence must be if we are really to know something is true, how many false starts and dead ends have plagued human thinking, how our biases can colour our interpretation of evidence, and how often belief systems widely held and supported by the political, religious and academic hierarchies turn out to be not just slightly in error, but grotesquely wrong.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to-learn-a-little-about-how/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/carl-sagan-160_academic_in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to_2841763.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/carl-sagan-160_academic_in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to_2841763.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/189/carl-sagan-160_academic_in-college-in-the-early-1950s-i-began-to_2841763.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In college, in the early 1950s, I began to learn a little about how science works, the secrets of its great…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fragile-planet-is-then/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be0/carl-sagan-160_care_the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fr_830907.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be0/carl-sagan-160_care_the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fr_830907.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/be0/carl-sagan-160_care_the-significance-of-our-lives-and-our-fr_830907.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus we see the front as it was tens of thousands of years before the back. But typical events in galactic dynamics occupy tens of millions of years, so the error in thinking of an image of a galaxy as frozen in one moment of time is small.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-thousands-of-light-years-closer/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de0/carl-sagan-160_dynamics_the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-tho_3088985.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de0/carl-sagan-160_dynamics_the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-tho_3088985.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de0/carl-sagan-160_dynamics_the-near-side-of-a-galaxy-is-tens-of-tho_3088985.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus we see…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 12, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is \"a peculiar evil.\" If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the \"opportunity of exchanging error for truth\"; and if it's wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in its \"collision with error.\" If we know only our own side of the argument, we hardly know even that: it becomes stale, soon learned by rote, untested, a pallid and lifeless truth.'", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-english-philosopher-john-stuart/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de5/carl-sagan-160_argument_in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-en_2206731.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de5/carl-sagan-160_argument_in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-en_2206731.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/de5/carl-sagan-160_argument_in-his-celebrated-book-on-liberty-the-en_2206731.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 13, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. 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There are at least two important differences, it seems to me. First, no one doubts that science actually works, whatever mistaken and fraudulent claim may from time to time be offered. But whether there are any miraculous cures from faith-healing, beyond the body's own ability to cure itself, is very much at issue. Secondly, the expose' of fraud and error in science is made almost exclusively by science. But the exposure of fraud and error in faith-healing is almost never done by other faith-healers.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire-profession-because-of-a-few/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b6/carl-sagan-160_ability_is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire_2207911.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b6/carl-sagan-160_ability_is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire_2207911.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6b6/carl-sagan-160_ability_is-it-fair-to-be-suspicious-of-an-entire_2207911.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Is it fair to be suspicious of an entire profession because of a few bad apples? 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Science is a collective enterprise with the error-correction machinery often running smoothly.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Carl Sagan" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/carl-sagan/scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it-is-the-job-of-the-scientist/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a7/carl-sagan-160_collectives_scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it_2695917.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a7/carl-sagan-160_collectives_scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it_2695917.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1a7/carl-sagan-160_collectives_scientists-make-mistakes-accordingly-it_2695917.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine…” — Carl Sagan", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/errors/carl-sagan/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/errors/carl-sagan/", "name": "Errors Quotes by Carl Sagan", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/errors/carl-sagan/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7b8/carl-sagan-160_atheism_eratosthenes-s-only-tools-were-sticks-ey_1459920.jpg" }, "description": "15 Errors quotes by Carl Sagan. 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