110+ Carl Sagan Quotes on Wonder and Curiosity for Scientific Exploration

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. He is best known for his work as a science popularizer and communicator, and he was also a highly successful author, writing several best-selling books, such as Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot, and The Demon-Haunted World. Sagan was also an important figure in the development of the SETI program, which searches for extraterrestrial life. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Carl Sagan on love, death, education.

Top 10 Carl Sagan Quotes

1. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
2. It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
3. Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
4. For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
5. The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.
6. I don't want to believe. I want to know.
7. The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
8. Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
9. We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
10. Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

Carl Sagan Image Quotes

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. — Carl Sagan

I don't want to believe. I want to know. — Carl Sagan

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Short Quotes

• You have to know the past to understand the present.
• Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
• We live on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam
• We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.
• Extinction is the rule, survival is the exception.
• It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.
• Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
• Not all birds can fly. What separates the flyers from the walkers is the ability to take off.
• Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity.
• Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.

Carl Sagan Quotes About Love

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. — Carl Sagan

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..." — Carl Sagan

She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. — Carl Sagan

Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky. — Carl Sagan

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. — Carl Sagan

Discussing the possibilities of extraterrestrial life: I would love it even if they were short, sullen, grumpy and sexually obsessed. But there just isn't any good evidence. — Carl Sagan

Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world. — Carl Sagan

Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Death

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

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out. — Carl Sagan

The secrets of evolution are death and time-the deaths of enormous numbers of lifeforms that were imperfectly adapted to the environment; and time for a long succession of small mutations. — Carl Sagan

The Hindu religion is the only of the World's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. — Carl Sagan

If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. — Carl Sagan

In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of punishment has been the Christian churches. — Carl Sagan

Probably a dozen times since their death I've heard my mother or father, in an ordinary conversational tone of voice, call my name. They had called my name often during my life with them ... It doesn't seem strange to me. — Carl Sagan

Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Education

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. — Carl Sagan

One of the greatest gifts adults can give - to their offspring and to their society - is to read to children. — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

The fact that someone says something doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean they're lying, but it doesn't mean it's true. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Space

If you look at Earth from space you see a dot, that's here. That's home. That's us. It underscores the responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. — Carl Sagan

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

Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs — in time, in space, and in potential — the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors. — Carl Sagan

A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being? — Carl Sagan

Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children. — Carl Sagan

The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space. — Carl Sagan

Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns. — Carl Sagan

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. — Carl Sagan

If our long-term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds. Sailors on a becalmed sea, we sense the stirring of a breeze. — Carl Sagan

Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Science

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true. — Carl Sagan

I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students. — Carl Sagan

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. — Carl Sagan

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved? — Carl Sagan

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. — Carl Sagan

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas. — Carl Sagan

The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both. — Carl Sagan

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Humanity

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. — Carl Sagan

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

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred. — Carl Sagan

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. — Carl Sagan

Humans - who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals - have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. — Carl Sagan

If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

Some racists still reject the plain testimony written in the DNA that all the races are not only human but nearly indistinguishable. . . . — Carl Sagan

It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization. — Carl Sagan

It is clear that the nations of the world now can only rise and fall together. It is not a question of one nation winning at the expense of another. We must all help one another or all perish together. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Life

There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe. — Carl Sagan

Be grateful everyday for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. — Carl Sagan

Anything else you're interested in is not going to happen if you can't breathe the air and drink the water. Don't sit this one out. Do something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. — Carl Sagan

A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this is our world. It is our responsibility to cherish it. Of all the worlds in our solar system, the only one so far as we know, graced by life. — Carl Sagan

For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled, even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven't forgotten: The open road still softly calls like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. — Carl Sagan

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy. — Carl Sagan

Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival. — Carl Sagan

But down deep, at the molecular heart of life we're essentially identical to trees. — Carl Sagan

Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close. — Carl Sagan

When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life. There are not many different kinds; there's only one kind. It uses about fifty fundamental biological building blocks, organic molecules. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Earth

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it. — Carl Sagan

The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth. — Carl Sagan

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls. — Carl Sagan

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance , the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light. — Carl Sagan

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. — Carl Sagan

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. — Carl Sagan

We have heard the rationales offered by the nuclear superpowers. We know who speaks for the nations. But who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for Earth? — Carl Sagan

Who will speak for Planet Earth? — Carl Sagan

Some 5 billion years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth... then the sun will begin to die, life will be extinguished, the oceans will boil and evaporate away. — Carl Sagan

The Platonists and their Christian successors held the peculiar notion that the Earth was tainted and somehow nasty, while the heavens were perfect and divine. The fundamental idea that the Earth is a planet, that we are citizens of the Universe, was rejected and forgotten. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Universe

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. — Carl Sagan

[Kepler] preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, and that is the heart of science. — Carl Sagan

The universe forces those who live in it to understand it. — Carl Sagan

Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom. — Carl Sagan

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. — Carl Sagan

The Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictability, no regularity, are in grave peril. The Universe belongs to those who, at least to some degree, have figured it out. — Carl Sagan

The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe, to know itself. — Carl Sagan

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. — Carl Sagan

Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. — Carl Sagan

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits? — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Exploration

We are made of stellar ash. Our origin and evolution have been tied to distant cosmic events. The exploration of the cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery. — Carl Sagan

Exploration is in our nature. 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

Those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries. — Carl Sagan

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

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. — Carl Sagan

By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has spent in sending ships to other worlds. It is our fate to live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time, one of the most hopeful chapters in human history. — Carl Sagan

These days there seems to be nowhere left to explore, at least on the land area of the Earth. Victims of their very success, the explorers now pretty much stay home. — Carl Sagan

It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us. — Carl Sagan

The passion to explore is at the heart of being human. — Carl Sagan

In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Curiosity

Curiosity and the urge to solve problems are the emotional hallmarks of our species. — Carl Sagan

My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence is provided by such a God. We would be unappreciative of that gift if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves. — Carl Sagan

Understanding is a kind of ecstasy — Carl Sagan

Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come? — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Wonder

Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact. — Carl Sagan

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. — Carl Sagan

There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any. — Carl Sagan

I hold that popularization of science is successful if, at first, it does no more than spark the sense of wonder. — Carl Sagan

My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method. — Carl Sagan

We all have a thirst for wonder. It's a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What I'm saying is, you don't have to make stories up, you don't have to exaggerate. There's wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature's a lot better at inventing wonders than we are. — Carl Sagan

Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to intense skeptical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your planet. — Carl Sagan

My wonder button is being pushed all the time. — Carl Sagan

The neurochemistry of the brain is astonishingly busy, the circuitry of a machine more wonderful than any devised by humans. But there is no evidence that its functioning is due to anything more than the 10(14) neural connections that build an elegant architecture of consciousness. — Carl Sagan

In a lot of scientists, the ratio of wonder to skepticism declines in time. That may be connected with the fact that in some fields-mathematics, physics, some others-the great discoveries are almost entirely made by youngsters. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About World

The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. — Carl Sagan

Organic as a dandelion seed, [the ship of our imagination] will carry us to worlds of dreams and worlds of facts — Carl Sagan

A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions. — Carl Sagan

All 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 Sagan

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers. — Carl Sagan

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. — Carl Sagan

But 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 trouble. — Carl Sagan

Demon mean knowledge in Greek, especially about the material world. Science means knowledge in Latin. A jurisdictional dispute is exposed, even if we look no further — Carl Sagan

Books tap the wisdom of our species -- the greatest minds, the best teachers -- from all over the world and from all our history. And they're patient. — Carl Sagan

There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Stars

Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years it still takes my breath away. — Carl Sagan

I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star. — Carl Sagan

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars. — Carl Sagan

Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes. — Carl Sagan

What a marvelous cooperative arrangement - plants and animals each inhaling each other's exhalations, a kind of planet-wide mutual mouth-to-stoma resuscitation, the entire elegant cycle powered by a star 150 million kilometers away. — Carl Sagan

In the deepest sense the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves. — Carl Sagan

A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars. Every star may be a sun to someone. — Carl Sagan

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

I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It's up to you. — Carl Sagan

After I give lectures-on almost any subject-I am often asked, "Do you believe in UFOs?" I'm always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not evidence. I'm almost never asked, "How good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?" — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Cosmic

.. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot' — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal. — Carl Sagan

We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. — Carl Sagan

There is today-in a time when old beliefs are withering-a kind of philosophical hunger, a need to know who we are and how we got here. It is an on-going search, often unconscious, for a cosmic perspective for humanity. — Carl Sagan

So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations. — Carl Sagan

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. — Carl Sagan

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Quotes About Astronomy

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant? — Carl Sagan

What counts is not what sounds plausible, not what we would like to believe, not what one or two witnesses claim, but only what is supported by hard evidence rigorously and skeptically examined. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. — Carl Sagan

Billions and billions. — Carl Sagan

It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience. — Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Famous Quotes And Sayings

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. — Carl Sagan

I don't want to believe. I want to know. — Carl Sagan

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five. — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

In Mozambique, the story goes, monkeys do not talk, because they know if they utter even a single word some man will come and put them to work. — Carl Sagan

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. — Carl Sagan

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. — Carl Sagan

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close. — Carl Sagan

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. And in the final tolling it often turns out that the facts are more comforting than the fantasy. — Carl Sagan

I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation — Carl Sagan

When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, that is the heart of science. — Carl Sagan

The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance. — Carl Sagan

It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, there's a couple lying naked in bed reading Encyclopediea Brittannica to each other, and arguing about whether the Andromeda Galaxy is more 'numinous' than the Ressurection. Do they know how to have a good time, or don't they? — Carl Sagan

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

The 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 don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it. — Carl Sagan

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. — Carl Sagan

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. — Carl Sagan

National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. — Carl Sagan

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God,' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity. — Carl Sagan

The difference between physics and metaphysics is not that the practitioners of one are smarter than the practitioners of the other. The difference is that the metaphysicist has no laboratory. — Carl Sagan

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. — Carl Sagan

We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation. — Carl Sagan

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. — Carl Sagan

The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no in the endeavor of science. We do not know in advance who will discover fundamental insights. — Carl Sagan

The 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 and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. — Carl Sagan

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes-an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. — Carl Sagan

Even Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Albert Einstein made serious mistakes. But the scientific enterprise arranges things so that teamwork prevails: What one of us, even the most brilliant among us, misses, another of us, even someone much less celebrated and capable, may detect and rectify. — Carl Sagan

It's perilous and foolhardy for the average citizen to remain ignorant about global warming, say, or ozone depletion, air pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, acid rain, topsoil erosion, tropical deforestation, exponential population growth. Jobs and wages depend on science and technology. — Carl Sagan

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs. — Carl Sagan

Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history. — Carl Sagan

You're an interesting species, an interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other. — Carl Sagan

In 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 course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed? — Carl Sagan

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. — Carl Sagan

Our 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

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. — Carl Sagan

If the constellations had been named in the twentieth century, I suppose we would see bicycles and refrigerators in the sky. — Carl Sagan

Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs. — Carl Sagan

There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed, no sacred truths. — Carl Sagan

If intelligence is our only edge, we must learn to use it better, to shape it, to understand its limitations and deficiencies -- to use it as cats use stealth, as katydids use camouflage -- to make it the tool of our survival. — Carl Sagan

Looking at fires when high, by the way, especially through one of those prism kaleidoscopes which image their surroundings, is an extraordinarily moving and beautiful experience. — Carl Sagan

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. — Carl Sagan

If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then, we are up for grabs for the next charlatan (political or religious) who comes rambling along. — Carl Sagan

We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. — Carl Sagan

A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable. — Carl Sagan

Life Lessons by Carl Sagan

1. Embrace Wonder and Curiosity: Sagan's work encourages people to ask courageous questions, be open to wonder, and subject all claims to critical scrutiny.
2. Value Evidence and Critical Thinking: He emphasized the importance of following evidence rather than accepting beliefs uncritically, advocating for the combination of openness to new ideas with a rigorous evaluation of facts.
3. Promote Science and Democracy: Sagan believed in the shared values of science and democracy, highlighting the importance of a free exchange of ideas, accountability, and questioning of authority in both realms.