It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan(The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995)
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
We are in a way for the cosmos to know itself.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan(The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995)
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
Carl Sagan(The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995)
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Carl Sagan
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
Carl Sagan(Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, 1979)
You have to know the past to understand the present.
Carl Sagan
Where we have strong emotions, we’re liable to fool ourselves.
Carl Sagan
We are star-stuff.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1983)
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
Carl Sagan(The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995)
The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.
Carl Sagan(Contact, 1985)
The Earth is a place. It is by no means the only place. It is not even a typical place.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos - Chapter I, 1980)
But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.
Carl Sagan(The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995)
We grow up in isolation. Only slowly do we teach ourselves the Cosmos.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos - Chapter I, 1980)
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1983)
Sceptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Carl Sagan(Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, 1979)
You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.
Carl Sagan
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist’s signature.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
Carl Sagan(Contact, 1985)
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.
Carl Sagan(Cosmos, 1980)
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
Carl Sagan(Contact, 1985)
Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.
