Carl Sagan Quotes

Welcome to my Carl Sagan quotes. Carl Sagan was a man of great passion and that passion was science, specifically the cosmos and our place in it. He was a man of rational thinking and very wise words. I love his quotes and I hope you do too.

Astronomer, Astrophysicist and Author
(November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996)

• CARL SAGAN QUOTE OF THE PAGE
  For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
• I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
• Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
• We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
• I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.
• Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
• Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
• But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
• Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
• For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
• It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas … If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones
• In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
• Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
• Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
• The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
• One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous.
• Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
• Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
• In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time someting like that happened in politics or religion.
• The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
• We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
• One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
• You have to know the past to understand the present.
• I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.
• We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.
• Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
• In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
• …that kind of skeptical questioning, don't accept what authority tells you -attitude of science- is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other.
• It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
• Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.





• When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions; that is the heart of science.
• Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?
• It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
• We are a way for the cosmos to know itself
• Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used
• A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge.
• I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble.
• There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
• The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit
• The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.

Thank you for passing by my Carl Sagan quotes. I admire Carl Sagan he dedicated his life to truth, critical thinking, evidence and the scientific way of thinking. These I believe are all crucial elements needed in this world. These Carl Sagan quotes are the lasting words of a man of great thinking. I am thankful to people like him who make us all learn a bit more about ourselves and out place in the cosmos.

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