Carl Sagan Quotes, Stars Quotes, Numbers Quotes

I never said it. Honest. Oh, I said there are maybe 100 billion galaxies and 10 billion trillion stars. It's hard to talk about the Cosmos without using big numbers. I said "billion" many times on the Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said "billions and billions." For one thing, it's too imprecise. How many billions are "billions and billions"? A few billion? Twenty billion? A hundred billion? "Billions and billions" is pretty vague. When we reconfigured and updated the series, I checked-and sure enough, I never said it.

3 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Numbers Quotes

The Big Bang is our modern scientific creation myth. It comes from the same human need to solve the cosmological riddle [Where did the universe come from?]

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Bangs Quotes , Needs Quotes

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Science Quotes

The cosmic calendar compresses the local history of the universe into a single year. If the universe began on January 1st it was not until May that the Milky Way formed. Other planetary systems may have appeared in June, July and August, but our Sun and Earth not until mid-September. Life arose soon after. We humans appear on the cosmic calendar so recently that our recorded history occupies only the last few seconds of the last minute of December 31st.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , June Quotes , July Quotes

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Education Quotes , Atheist Quotes

It's sometimes easier to reject strong evidence than to admit that we've been wrong, this is information about ourselves worth having.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Strong Quotes , Self Worth Quotes

We have entered, almost without noticing, an age of exploration and discovery unparalleled since the Renaissance.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Discovery Quotes , Innovation Quotes

We humans appear on the cosmic calendar so recently that our recorded history occupies only the last few seconds of the last minute of December 31st.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Lasts Quotes , Calendars Quotes

When permitted to listen to alternative opinions and engage in substantive debate, people have been known to change their minds. It can happen.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , People Quotes , Mind Quotes

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Ambition Quotes , Science Quotes

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.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Funny Quotes , Brother Quotes

Is mankind alone in the universe? Or are there somewhere other intelligent beings looking up into their night sky from very different worlds and asking the same kind of question?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Intelligent Quotes , Night Quotes