Carl Sagan Quotes, Smart Quotes, Knowing Quotes

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgement, the manner in which information is coordinated and used.

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There are as many atoms in one molecule of DNA as there are stars in a typical galaxy.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Dna Quotes

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

I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Leader Quotes , Independence Quotes

One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Heart Quotes , Exercise Quotes

A stars rich in europium; of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Light Quotes

The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus we see the front as it was tens of thousands of years before the back. But typical events in galactic dynamics occupy tens of millions of years, so the error in thinking of an image of a galaxy as frozen in one moment of time is small.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Errors Quotes

There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Space Quotes , Earth Day Quotes

Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stupid Quotes , Ignorance Quotes

Maybe it's a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds - promising untold opportunities - beckon. Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Opportunity Quotes , Other Worlds Quotes

It is said that men may not be the dreams of the god, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Inspirational Quotes , God Quotes

There is a lurking fear that some things are not “meant" to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Keeping Secrets Quotes , Some Things Are Meant To Be Quotes

What began in deadly competition has helped us to see that global cooperation is the essential precondition for our survival. Travel is broadening. It's time to hit the road again.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Competition Quotes , Survival Quotes

There are huge advertising budgets only when there's no difference between the products. If the products really were different, people would buy the one that's better. Advertising teaches people not to trust their judgment. Advertising teaches people to be stupid.

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On the day that we do discover that we are not alone, our society may begin to evolve and transform in some incredible and wondrous new ways.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , May Quotes , Our Society Quotes

What distinguishes our species is thought. The cerebral cortex is in a way a liberation. We need no longer be trapped in the genetically inherited behavior patterns of lizards and baboons: territoriality and aggression and dominance hierarchies. We are each of us largely responsible for what gets put in to our brains. For what as adults we wind up caring for and knowing about. No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain we can change ourselves. Think of the possibilities.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Caring Quotes , Thinking Quotes

It seems madness to say, 'We're worried that they're going to become addicted to marijuana' -- there's no evidence whatever that it's an addictive drug, but even if it were, these people are dying, what are we saving them from?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Marijuana Quotes , People Quotes

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.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Motivational Quotes , Learning Quotes

I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Morning Quotes , Believe Quotes

Arguments from authority carry little weight – authorities have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Mistake Quotes , Past Quotes