A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brillance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Maxwell's Equations have had a greater impact on human history than any ten presidents. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe into a single year. If the universe began on January 1st it… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Some racists still reject the plain testimony written in the DNA that all the races are not only human but nearly indistinguishable. . . . — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Because men, compared to male chimps, have such relatively small testicles (large testicles indicate a species where many males mate, one after… — 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
Your religion assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they'll behave. You want people to believe in God so… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The Big Bang is our modern scientific creation myth. It comes from the same human need to solve the cosmological riddle [Where… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself… — 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
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
We are rare and precious because we are alive, because we can think as well as we can. We are privileged to… — 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
A single message from space will show that it is possible to live through technological adolescence. . . . It is possible… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“[ 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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
