Carl Sagan Quotes, Thinking Quotes, Who We Are Quotes

I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.

5 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Who We Are Quotes

What does it mean for a civilisation to be a million years old? We have had radio telescopes and spaceships for a few decades; our technical civilisation is a few hundred years old ... an advanced civilisation millions of years old is as much beyond us as we are beyond a bushbaby or a macaque

5 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Mean Quotes , Technology Quotes

I would be very ashamed of my civilization if we did not try to find out if there is life in outer space.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Civilization Quotes , Space Quotes

As agonizing a disease as cancer is, I do not think it can be said that our civilization is threatened by it. ... But a very plausible case can be made that our civilization is fundamentally threatened by the lack of adequate fertility control. Exponential increases of population will dominate any arithmetic increases, even those brought about by heroic technological initiatives, in the availability of food and resources, as Malthus long ago realized.

5 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Cancer Quotes , Science Quotes

The politicians and the religious leaders and the weapons scientists have been at it for a long time and they've made a thorough mess of it. I mean, we're in deep trouble.

5 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Religious Quotes , Atheist Quotes

Understanding is a kind of ecstasy

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Understanding Quotes , Curiosity Quotes

Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Running Quotes , Responsibility Quotes

Each of us is a tiny being, permitted to ride on the outermost skin of one of the smaller planets for a few dozen trips around the local star.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stars Quotes , Skins Quotes

There is a report that says that kids who watch violent TV programs tend to be more violent when they grow up. But did the TV cause the violence, or do violent children preferentially enjoy watching violent programs?

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Children Quotes , Growing Up Quotes

There are lots of ways to communicate what we know, but few ways to communicate what we feel. Music is one way to communicate emotions.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Music Quotes , Way Quotes

The Romans called the Christians atheists. Why? Well, the Christians had a god of sorts, but it wasn't a real god. They didn't believe in the divinity of apotheosized emperors or Olympian gods. They had a peculiar, different kind of god. So it was very easy to call people who believed in a different kind of god atheists. And that general sense that an atheist is anybody who doesn't believe exactly as I do prevails in our own time.

5 years ago

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Christian Quotes , Atheist Quotes

An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Atheist Quotes , Doe Quotes

We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Cosmos Quotes , Stills Quotes

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Life Quotes , Art Quotes

We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Rocks Quotes , Humanity 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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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , War Quotes , Science Quotes

Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Stupidity Quotes

A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in terms of physics and chemistry.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Religion Quotes , Generations Quotes

All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion is unrequited. Surveys suggest that some 95% of Americans are "scientifically illiterate." That's...the same fraction...of slaves who were illiterate before the Civil War.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , War Quotes , Smart Quotes

History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power has destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again.

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Tags : Carl Sagan Quotes , Truth Quotes , Ignorance Quotes