Carl SaganI believe that in every person is a kind of circuit which resonates to intellectual discovery-and the idea is to make that resonance work ✨ Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). Conv… ▶361Thought
Carl SaganWhat 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 ol… ▶361Reading
Carl SaganWe are, in the most profound sense, children of the Cosmos.362Humanity
Carl SaganAt the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, p.4… ▶351Reading
Carl SaganAll of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value. ✨ Carl … ▶351Reading
Carl SaganA celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. ✨ Contact. Book by Carl Sagan. Chapter 14, p. 244, 19… ▶373ReadingThought
Carl SaganThe fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people… ▶362HumanityPoliticsReading
Carl SaganScience 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 … ▶362Reading
Carl SaganOur perceptions are fallible. We sometimes see what isn't there. We are prey to optical illusions. Occasionally we hallucinate. We are error-prone. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Demo… ▶373ReadingTime
Carl SaganThe library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet… ▶374HumanityReadingSadness
Carl SaganOur intelligence is imperfect, surely, and newly arisen; the ease with which it can be sweet-talked, overwhelmed, or subverted by other hardwired propensities - sometimes themselv… ▶363ReadingTime
Carl SaganI hold that popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark the sense of wonder. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Cand… ▶352Reading
Carl Sagan[S]cience has itself become a kind of religion.374Sadness
Carl SaganOn 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.374Humanity
Carl SaganWidespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leade… ▶352DeathLifeReading
Carl SaganNevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared … ▶363HumanityPoliticsReading
Carl SaganThe beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. ✨ The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Sea… ▶363LifeReading
Carl SaganFor a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Cosmos, p.194, Ballantine Books374HumanityReadingTime
Carl SaganScientists can routinely predict a solar eclipse, to the minute, a millennium in advance. You can go to the witch doctor to lift the spell that causes your pernicious anaemia, or … ▶364Time
Carl SaganIn many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of … ▶364Humor
Carl SaganThe size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Cosmos… ▶331HumanityReading
Carl SaganWe've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like th… ▶353HopeHumanityPolitics
Carl SaganWe wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to di… ▶342Truth
Carl SaganThe universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. ✨ Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Book by Carl Sagan, p. 250, 1980.364Reading
Carl SaganThe old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work. ✨ Cosmos/ Who Speaks for Earth?. Documentary, 1980.375Reading
Carl SaganBe grateful everyday for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. ✨ In the Valley of the Shadow. Parade, March 10, 1996.331Life
Carl SaganThe fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. ✨ Broca's Brain ch. 5 (1979)375HumorThoughtTruth
Carl SaganIn exchange for freedom of inquiry, scientists are obliged to explain their work. ✨ Carl Sagan (2011). Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, p.14, Ballantine… ▶353LoveReadingReflection
Carl SaganBut I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into t… ▶375ReadingThought
Carl SaganScience is only a Latin word for knowledge ✨ Carl Sagan (2006). The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, p.218, Penguin342Life
