Years ago Quotes by Carl Sagan

10 Years ago quotes by Carl Sagan

Sagan’s awe of the universe extends to our own histories in this ten‑quote collection. The snippets are brief, yet each carries his poetic scientific lens, offering a modest but inspiring look at how the past fits into the larger cosmos.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

“600 million years ago, the monopolizing grip of the algae was broken and an enormous proliferation of new lifeforms emerged, an event…

Carl Sagan

Image

We start out a million years ago in a small community on some grassy plain; we hunt animals, have children, and develop…

Carl Sagan

Image

“Except for hydrogen, all the atoms that make each of us up—the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the…

Carl Sagan

Image

All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon…

Carl Sagan

Image

Eratosthenes's only tools were sticks, eyes, feet, and brains; plus a zest for experiment. With those tools he correctly deduced the circumference…

Carl Sagan

Image

“Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our…

Carl Sagan

Image

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

Carl Sagan

Image

(When asked merely if they accept evolution, 45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.) When the…

Carl Sagan

Image

“Planetary exploration satisfies our inclination for great enterprises and wanderings and quests that has been with us since our days as hunters…

Carl Sagan

Image

“When an object impacts the Moon at high speed, it sets the Moon slightly wobbling. Eventually the vibrations die down but not…

Carl Sagan

Image

Other authors on Years ago

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…

Carl Sagan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image

Don't judge everyone else by your own limited experience.

Carl Sagan

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

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

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

Image

Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no.

Carl Sagan

Image

Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.…

Carl Sagan

Image

Every star may be a sun to someone.

Carl Sagan

Image