Truth Quotes by Carl Sagan

“the increase of known truths stimulates the investigation, establishment, and growth of the arts.”

— Carl Sagan

The words "question" and "quest" are cognates. Only through inquiry can we discover truth.

— Carl Sagan

The sacred truth of science is that there are no sacred truths.

— Carl Sagan

Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.

— Carl Sagan

[Kepler] preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, and that is the heart of science.

— Carl Sagan

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.

— Carl Sagan

If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.

— Carl Sagan

“Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable”

— Carl Sagan

In a complex universe, in a society undergoing unprecedented change, how can we find the truth if we are not willing to…

— Carl Sagan

The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths / of exquisite interrelationships / of the awesome machinery of nature

— Carl Sagan

We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both.…

— Carl Sagan

“We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling. HENRI POINCARÉ (1854–1912)”

— Carl Sagan

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts…

— Carl Sagan

History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power has destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which…

— Carl Sagan

“It may be that there are kernels of truth in a few of these doctrines, but their widespread acceptance betokens a lack…

— Carl Sagan

“If a marker were to be erected today, it might read, in homage to his scientific courage: “He preferred the hard truth…

— Carl Sagan

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held…

— Carl Sagan

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to…

— Carl Sagan

Our intelligence is imperfect, surely, and newly arisen; the ease with which it can be sweet-talked, overwhelmed, or subverted by other hardwired…

— Carl Sagan

“When we are asked to swear in American courts of law—that we will tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but…

— Carl Sagan

[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we…

— Carl Sagan

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. But…

— Carl Sagan

“As science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. It's a big universe, of course, so He,…

— Carl Sagan

The Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of…

— Carl Sagan

“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

Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years…

— Carl Sagan

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held…

— Carl Sagan

“For thousands of years humans were oppressed— as some of us still are— by the notion that the universe is a marionette…

— Carl Sagan

'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If…

— Carl Sagan

“In the 1920s, there was a dinner at which the physicist Robert W. Wood was asked to respond to a toast ...…

— Carl Sagan

“Science is an ongoing process. It never ends. There is no single ultimate truth to be achieved, after which all the scientists…

— Carl Sagan

“If we know only our own side of the argument, we hardly know even that; it becomes stale, soon learned only by…

— Carl Sagan

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science…

— Carl Sagan

“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

Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find…

— Carl Sagan

The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them - the sense that we have a…

— Carl Sagan

“Science is an ongoing process. It never ends. There is no single ultimate truth to be achieved, after which all the scientists…

— Carl Sagan