For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.Contact, p. 430, 1985
Author · 21 quotes
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, and author. He is best known for popularizing science, particularly astronomy, through his work as a science communicator. Sagan co-wrote and hosted the television series "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" and published several influential books, becoming a prominent figure in the scientific community and public understanding of science.
1934–1996·lived 62 years
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.Contact, p. 430, 1985
The many sorrows of our recent history suggest that we humans have a learning disability.The Demon-Haunted World, 1995
It is possible - given absolute control over the media and the police - to rewrite the memories of hundreds of millions of people… It works to erase public memory of profound political mistakes, and thus to guarantee their eventual repetition.
What's wrong with admitting that we don't know something? Is our self-esteem so fragile?
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.
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.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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.The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, p. 387, 1995
Most of the people that I deal with are human. So I've had a lot of experience with that.Interview with Psychology Today, 1996
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience.Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, p. 243, 1994
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.The Demon-Haunted World, p. 27, 1995
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, p. 206, 1995
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, p. 27, 1995
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.Bringing Science Back to Earth, Interview with Anne Kalosh, Hemispheres, October 1994
I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, 1979
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.Cosmos, 1980
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.Cosmos, 1980
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.Cosmos, p. 20, 1980
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.The Varieties of Scientific Experience, p. 202, 2006
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.The Demon-Haunted World, p. 199, 1995
That’s all 21 quotes by Carl Sagan.