Carl Sagan Quotes, Memories Quotes, Brain Quotes

We are the only species on the planet, so far as we know, to have invented a communal memory stored neither in our genes nor in our brains. The warehouse of this memory is called the library

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Memories Quotes , Brain Quotes

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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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Giving Quotes , Hearing Quotes

The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. . . . Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Honesty Quotes , Ideas Quotes

If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Superstitions Quotes

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.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Science Quotes , Religion Quotes

There are many instances in science, where those closest to the intricacies of the subject have a more highly developed sense of its intractability than those at some remove. On the other hand, those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective.

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By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang.

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The wind whips through the canyons of the American Southwest, and there is no one to hear it but us - a reminder of the 40,000 generations of thinking men and women who preceded us, about whom we know almost nothing, upon whom our civilization is based.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Men Quotes , Thinking Quotes

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.

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When we look up at night and view the stars, everything we see is shinning because of distant nuclear fusion.

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The open road still softly calls.

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It's hard to kill a creature once it lets you see its consciousness.

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Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Positive Quotes , Hope Quotes

You mustn't think of the Universe as a wilderness. It hasn't been that for billions of years," he said. "Think of it more as... ..cultivated.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Years Quotes

Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Superstitions Quotes , Way Quotes

Chlorine is a deadly poison gas employed on European battlefields in World War I. Sodium is a corrosive metal which burns upon contact with water. Together they make a placid and unpoisonous material, table salt. Why each of these substances has the properties it does is a subject called chemistry.

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She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Messages Quotes , Vastness Quotes

The Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictability, no regularity, are in grave peril. The Universe belongs to those who, at least to some degree, have figured it out.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Everyday Quotes , Events Quotes

Our perceptions are fallible. We sometimes see what isn't there. We are prey to optical illusions. Occasionally we hallucinate. We are error-prone.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Errors Quotes , Perception Quotes

Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your planet.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Answers Quotes , Courageous Quotes