Carl Sagan Quotes, Ideas Quotes, Lovely Quotes

The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there's no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system. The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

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

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The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.

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What an astonishing thing a book is.

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It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.

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In a complex universe, in a society undergoing unprecedented change, how can we find the truth if we are not willing to question everything and to give a fair hearing to everything?

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Nature does not always conform to our predispositions and preferences, to what we deem comfortable and easy to understand.

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You're an interesting species, an interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Beautiful Quotes , Dream Quotes

What's the harm of a little mystification? It sure beats boring statistical analyses.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Analysis Quotes , Littles Quotes

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Thinking Quotes

So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations.

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In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.

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We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world.

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The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Fleeting Quotes

It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Emotional Quotes , Courageous Quotes

When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a characteristic odour that signals the survivors to remove it from the hive. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid. What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid? Then no matter how strapping and vigourous it might be, it is carried kicking and screaming out of the hive.

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We are a way of the universe knowing itself.

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The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.

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Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of magic.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Book Quotes , Writing Quotes

The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason and morality. We have them, the other animals don't, and -- so the argument goes -- that's that.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Animal Quotes , Culture Quotes