In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time and space works the most… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The immense distances to the stars and the galaxies mean that we see everything in space in the past, some as they… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
There is every reason to think that in the coming years Mars and its mysteries will become increasingly familiar to the inhabitants… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
I would be very ashamed of my civilization if we did not try to find out if there is life in outer… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Once upon a time, we soared into the Solar System. For a few years. Then we hurried back. Why? What happened? What… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If there is life, then I believe we should do nothing to disturb that life. Mars then, belongs to the Martians, even… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
After I give lectures-on almost any subject-I am often asked, "Do you believe in UFOs?" I'm always struck by how the question… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The chance of receiving a signal from a civilization exactly as advanced as we are should be minuscule. If they were even… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“I’m frequently asked, “Do you believe there’s extraterrestrial intelligence?” I give the standard arguments—there are a lot of places out there, the… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Voyages to the outer solar system are controlled from a single place on the planet Earth, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Since, in the long run, every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“One consequence of this train of argument is that, even if civilizations commonly arise on planets throughout the Galaxy, few of them… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“For all the tantalizing and provocative character of the Viking results, I know a hundred places on Mars which are far more… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“No civilization can possibly survive to an interstellar spacefaring phase unless it limits its numbers. Any society with a marked population explosion… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Spaceflight, therefore, is subversive. If they are fortunate enough to find themselves in orbit, most people, after a little meditation, have similar… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipwrights. It has always… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“There are so many examples of human misuse of the Earth that even phrasing this question chills me. If there is life… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Or perhaps they are here, but in hiding because of some Lex Galactica , some ethic of noninterference with emerging civilizations. We… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Centuries hence, when current social and political problems may seem as remote as the problems of the Thirty Years' War are to… — 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
We are made of star stuff. For the most part, atoms heavier than hydrogen were created in the interiors of stars and… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Imagine we could accelerate continuously at 1 g-what we're comfortable with on good old terra firma-to the midpoint of our voyage, and… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If you look at Earth from space you see a dot, that's here. That's home. That's us. It underscores the responsibility to… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe which dwarfs… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We can make a similar examination, but with greater uncertainty, of the extraterrestrial hypothesis that holds that a wide range of UFOs… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
I’m struck again by the irony that spaceflight-conceived in the cauldron of nationalist rivalries and hatreds-brings with it a stunning transnational vision.… — 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
“We have examined the universe in space and seen that we live on a mote of dust circling a humdrum star in… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday, but there's no support for this… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinizing what we mainly present to our children in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines,… — 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