Carl Sagan quote: "The great radio telescopes of the world are constructed in remote locations for the same reason Paul Gauguin sailed to Tahiti: For them to work well they must be far from civilization."

There is a wide, yawning black infinity. In every direction, the extension is endless; the sensation...
CARL SAGAN

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniu...
CARL SAGAN

In our obscurity - in all this vastness - there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to sav...
CARL SAGAN

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
CARL SAGAN

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there&#...
CARL SAGAN

The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
CARL SAGAN

Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
CARL SAGAN

If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.
CARL SAGAN

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected fi...
CARL SAGAN

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires int...
CARL SAGAN

Imagine that I am riding a bicycle toward you. As I approach an intersection I nearly collide, so it...
CARL SAGAN

A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science...
CARL SAGAN

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you k...
CARL SAGAN

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to ...
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

The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pi...
CARL SAGAN

Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we ...
CARL SAGAN

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called
CARL SAGAN

The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing ...
CARL SAGAN

The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put toget...
CARL SAGAN

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

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.
CARL SAGAN

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
CARL SAGAN

In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with...
CARL SAGAN

Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live...
CARL SAGAN

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we r...
CARL SAGAN

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to re...
CARL SAGAN

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.
CARL SAGAN

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attenti...
CARL SAGAN

There is today-in a time when old beliefs are withering-a kind of philosophical hunger, a need to kn...
CARL SAGAN

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all ...
CARL SAGAN

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and techno...
CARL SAGAN

We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to self-awareness. We have begun to contemplate our or...
CARL SAGAN

In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written sma...
CARL SAGAN

Books tap the wisdom of our species -- the greatest minds, the best teachers -- from all over the wo...
CARL SAGAN

If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
CARL SAGAN

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'...
CARL SAGAN

Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. ...
CARL SAGAN

Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
CARL SAGAN

If we like them, they're freedom fighters . . . If we don't like them, they're terrorists. In the un...
CARL SAGAN

If the world is to be understood, if we are to avoid such logical paradoxes when traveling at high s...
CARL SAGAN

We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
CARL SAGAN

What's the harm of a little mystification? It sure beats boring statistical analyses.
CARL SAGAN

They laughed at Galileo. They laughed at Newton. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
CARL SAGAN

I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set ...
CARL SAGAN

A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try ...
CARL SAGAN

In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfill...
CARL SAGAN

The significance of a finding that there are other beings who share this universe with us would be a...
CARL SAGAN

For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves, ... This is a ...
CARL SAGAN

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

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. -Carl Sa...
CARL SAGAN

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and techno...
CARL SAGAN

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

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fif...
CARL SAGAN

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

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

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it i...
CARL SAGAN

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people r...
CARL SAGAN

All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single lar...
CARL SAGAN

All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will c...
CARL SAGAN

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows a...
CARL SAGAN

Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish.
It makes sense to revere the S...
CARL SAGAN

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geni...
CARL SAGAN

I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem y...
CARL SAGAN

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever ...
CARL SAGAN

I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary s...
CARL SAGAN

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowe...
CARL SAGAN

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

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
CARL SAGAN

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
CARL SAGAN

Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are as sand, as dust - or less than dust - in the enormity...
CARL SAGAN

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucke...
CARL SAGAN

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however ...
CARL SAGAN

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in ...
CARL SAGAN

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfyi...
CARL SAGAN

No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it's this world or noth...
CARL SAGAN

Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we res...
CARL SAGAN

We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they...
CARL SAGAN

Can you be sure that others have not come before you and destroyed the pristine state of the native ...
CARL SAGAN

Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understand...
CARL SAGAN

I would suggest that science is, at least in my part, informed worship.
CARL SAGAN

We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other sta...
CARL SAGAN

A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars w...
CARL SAGAN

The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosm...
CARL SAGAN

How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than...
CARL SAGAN

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people r...
CARL SAGAN

All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for...
CARL SAGAN

Arguments from authority carry little weight – authorities have made mistakes in the past. They wi...
CARL SAGAN

When you're in love, you want to tell the world. My lifelong love affair with science
CARL SAGAN

Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get ...
CARL SAGAN

I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready for it, or because it arose only ...
CARL SAGAN

Christianity may be good and Satanism evil. Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This ...
CARL SAGAN

But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anyt...
CARL SAGAN

Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world.
CARL SAGAN

One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its...
CARL SAGAN

In the way that scepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to ...
CARL SAGAN

I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem ye...
CARL SAGAN

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fir...
CARL SAGAN

I find many adults are put off when young children pose scientific questions. Why is the Moon round?...
CARL SAGAN

There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate ...
CARL SAGAN

There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any.
CARL SAGAN

We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and...
CARL SAGAN

The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Je...
CARL SAGAN

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in ...
CARL SAGAN

Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly o...
CARL SAGAN

An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinizing what we mainly present to our child...
CARL SAGAN

The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense ...
CARL SAGAN

But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine.
CARL SAGAN

Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wis...
CARL SAGAN

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States...
CARL SAGAN

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and te...
CARL SAGAN

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a pre...
CARL SAGAN

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows a...
CARL SAGAN

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
CARL SAGAN

The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be intere...
CARL SAGAN

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
CARL SAGAN

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how ...
CARL SAGAN

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
CARL SAGAN

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
CARL SAGAN

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matc...
CARL SAGAN

Some information is classified legitimately; as with military hardware, secrecy sometimes really is ...
CARL SAGAN

Understanding is a kind of ecstasy
CARL SAGAN

You probably don't need more weapons than what's required to destroy every city on earth. Th...
CARL SAGAN

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may...
CARL SAGAN

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever t...
CARL SAGAN

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
CARL SAGAN

The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps pr...
CARL SAGAN

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on whic...
CARL SAGAN

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on ...
CARL SAGAN

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fift...
CARL SAGAN

You have to know the past to understand the present.
CARL SAGAN

We are star stuff harvesting sunlight.
CARL SAGAN

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envisio...
CARL SAGAN

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my positio...
CARL SAGAN

A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity...
CARL SAGAN

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowe...
CARL SAGAN

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years....
CARL SAGAN

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fif...
CARL SAGAN

In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bil...
CARL SAGAN

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe...
CARL SAGAN

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sk...
CARL SAGAN

We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 ...
CARL SAGAN

Are we an exceptionally unlikely accident or is the universe brimming over with intelligence? (It's)...
CARL SAGAN

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - ...
CARL SAGAN

We start out a million years ago in a small community on some grassy plain; we hunt animals, have ch...
CARL SAGAN

Black holes may be apertures to elsewhen. Were we to plunge down a black hole, we would re-emerge, i...
CARL SAGAN

It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.
CARL SAGAN

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all ...
CARL SAGAN

I don't want to believe. I want to know.
CARL SAGAN

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my positio...
CARL SAGAN

You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such...
CARL SAGAN

I've written a number of books that have to do with the evolution of humans, human intelligence,...
CARL SAGAN

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us ...
CARL SAGAN

The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from ...
CARL SAGAN

The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and c...
CARL SAGAN

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.
CARL SAGAN

The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus w...
CARL SAGAN

[When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996...
CARL SAGAN

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering ...
CARL SAGAN

It is said that men may not be the dreams of the Gods, but rather that the Gods are the dreams of me...
CARL SAGAN

The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us ...
CARL SAGAN

The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ours...
CARL SAGAN

Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Ta...
CARL SAGAN

We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am...
CARL SAGAN

We have swept through all of the planets in the solar system, from Mercury to Neptune, in a historic...
CARL SAGAN

The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they ...
CARL SAGAN

We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipw...
CARL SAGAN

For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Ri...
CARL SAGAN

Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little...
CARL SAGAN

Let's see if I got this right," she would say to herself. "I've taken an inert gas that's in the air...
CARL SAGAN

Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever valu...
CARL SAGAN

I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promi...
CARL SAGAN

But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - ar...
CARL SAGAN

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for res...
CARL SAGAN

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an op...
CARL SAGAN

An atheist is someone who is certain that God doesn't exist, someone who has compelling evidence aga...
CARL SAGAN

Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is ...
CARL SAGAN

Those at too great a distance may, I am well are, mistake ignorance for perspective.
CARL SAGAN

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sk...
CARL SAGAN

Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Univer...
CARL SAGAN

To live in the hearts we leave behind is to live forever.
CARL SAGAN

As science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. It's a big universe, of course, ...
CARL SAGAN

We have examined the universe in space and seen that we live on a mote of dust circling a humdrum st...
CARL SAGAN

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

If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world ...
CARL SAGAN

Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid ...
CARL SAGAN

Observation: I can't see a thing. Conclusion: Dinosaurs.
CARL SAGAN

We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands.
CARL SAGAN

Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.
CARL SAGAN

We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand sun...
CARL SAGAN

You are worth about 3 dollars worth in chemicals.
CARL SAGAN

Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soi...
CARL SAGAN

The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what...
CARL SAGAN

One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands...
CARL SAGAN

Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.
CARL SAGAN

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immen...
CARL SAGAN

If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a ...
CARL SAGAN

Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered lo...
CARL SAGAN

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
CARL SAGAN

we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers
CARL SAGAN

The great radio telescopes of the world are constructed in remote locations for the same reason Paul Gauguin sailed to Tahiti: For them to work well they must be far from civilization.

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Carl Sagan

The great radio telescopes of the world are constructed in remote locations for the same reason Paul Gauguin sailed to Tahiti: For them to work well they must be far from civilization.

Carl Sagan

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