FastSaying

The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit.


Dr. Carl Sagan

  Email Quote to Friends   Link to Quote   Create Short URL  Publish Text About This Quote   Share on Facebook, Twitter, and more
  See Recommended Quotes For You

Related

My contention is evolution kills people. It's not that evolutionists don't have morality, it's that ...
BILL JACK A necessary consequent of religious belief is the attaching ideas of merit to that belief, and of de...
FRANCES WRIGHT It's $40 million down the toilet, ... He's worse off now than if he hadn't held a special election. ...
ARNOLD STEINBERG It is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. hares have no time to read.
ANITA BROOKNER I want Carl Sagan to explain the sky to me.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG When we take all of that into consideration, we believe these claims don't have any merit.
ERIK CHRISTIANSON Upon the whole, then it seems undeniable, that nothing can bestow more merit on any human creature t...
DAVID HUME They have all played very well and deserve to stay in on merit.
IAN TAYLOR The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude o...
NIKOLA TESLA I know there have been teams that have done well there. Shields is probably the favorite, but we fee...
WILLIAM BROWN When we make
that contention, we don't do so without evidence that makes
that contention p...
GEORGE ROBERTSON We've got the capability to contend for a Big East Championship. The kids have responded well to the...
GREG ROY But there are some issues that have simply dropped out of contention,
MARK TUSHNET All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom w...
JOAN DIDION We can never make proper goodbyes. It was your last ride in a Checker cab and you had no warning. It...
COLSON WHITEHEAD Various kinds of ideas can be classified by their relationship to the authentication process. There...
THOMAS SOWELL I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anythi...
JIM MORRISON Excuses have no merit when you are committed.
JEFFREY BENJAMIN The last year or so for me have been anxious, not being in contention very much.
DUFFY WALDORF I only hope that I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty and those I have wronged.
JACK ABRAMOFF The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.
FRANCIS QUARLES My contention is, all kids have tremendous talents and we squander them, pretty ruthlessly.
SIR KEN ROBBINSON In excessive altercation, truth is lost. [Lat., Nimium altercando veritas amittitur.]
SYRUS (PUBLILIUS SYRUS) Thus when a barber and collier fight, The barber beats the luckless collier--white; The dusty ...
CHRISTOPHER SMART The whole discord of this world consists in discords. [Lat., Tota hujus mundi concordia ex discord...
SENECA (LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA) Agreement exists in disagreement. [Lat., Mansit concordia discors.]
LUCANUS (MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCAN) Not hate, but glory, made these chiefs contend; And each brave foe was in his soul a friend.
HOMER ("SMYRNS OF CHIOS") But curb thou the high spirit in thy breast, For gentle ways are best, and keep aloof From sha...
HOMER ("SMYRNS OF CHIOS") So when two dogs are fighting in the streets, When a third dog one of the two dogs meets: With...
HENRY FIELDING Did thrust (as now) in other's corn his sickle. - Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas,
GUILLAUME DE SALLUSTE DU BARTAS Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And...
WILLIAM COWPER And the combat ceased, for want of combatants. [Fr., Et le combat cessa, faute de combattants.]
PIERRE CORNEILLE A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.
BIBLE And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
BIBLE And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my h...
BIBLE 'Tis a hydra's head contention; the more they strive the more they may: and as Praxiteles did by h...
ROBERT BURTON You will stir up the hornets. [Lat., Irritabis crabones.]
PLAUTUS (TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS) Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole ...
BIBLE The chiefs contend only for their place of burial. [Lat., Ducibus tantum de funere pugna est.]
LUCANUS (MARCUS ANNAEUS LUCAN) He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our hel...
ROBERT BURTON Contentions fierce, Ardent, and dire, spring from no petty cause.
SIR WALTER SCOTT Stir up the hornets. [Fr., Irriter les freslons.]
FRANCOIS RABELAIS When individuals approach one another with deep purposes on both sides they seldom come at once to ...
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE We have quite the same ideas. No; I think our ideas are quite different. But he has been most pleasa...
OSCAR WILDE Early in my teaching days, the kids asked me the meaning of a poem. I replied, 'I don't know...
FRANK MCCOURT It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE It seems to never occur to fools that merit and good fortune are closely united.
JOHANN VON GOETHE Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.
PROVERB Speak little and well if you wish to be esteemed a person of merit.
FRENCH PROVERB We have it all to do but are not out of contention. We shall keep going right to the end.
GARFIELD EWINGS The people with ideas have no power and the people with power have no ideas.
HARMON OKINYO Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family mem...
EZRA TAFT BENSON It sounds like stories from the land of spirits, If any man obtain that which he merits, Or an...
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE That has always been a bone of contention.
EMORY CAMPBELL It's not unusual in the fundraising world to have charities take ideas from other organizations and ...
BENNETT WEINER Circumstances that we know from the outset, that some or all had been to a club, would merit further...
CHARLIE WOOD Quarrel not at all. No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contenti...
ABRAHAM LINCOLN I have no ideas, only obsessions. Anybody can have ideas. Ideas have never caused anybody's downfall...
EMIL M. CIORAN I probably have traveled and walked into more variety stores than anybody in America. I am just tryi...
SAM WALTON In the way that scepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to ...
CARL SAGAN It is our state organization's contention that the state should have been pulling more ... We feel t...
BRENDA FAUST Plagiarists, at least, have the merit of preservation
BENJAMIN DISRAELI My drawings have been described as pre-internationalist, meaning that they were finished before the ...
JAMES THURBER My drawings have been described as pre-intentionalist, meaning that they were finished before the id...
JOSEPH HELLER It's our contention that, in an effort to stop throwing the ball, it got away from him and hit (the ...
ED SPRAGUE The evaluation criteria will be similar to criteria used in previous Discovery program Announcements...
SUSAN NIEBUR Any opinions I have are based on the same evidence that commissioners looked at. I haven't pre-judge...
MARTIN COHEN Only by pride comes contention; but, with the well-advised is wisdom. Proverbs 13:10
BIBLE Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.
JOSEPH JOUBERT Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.
JOSEPH JOUBERT Republicans have nothing but bad ideas and Democrats have no ideas.
LEWIS BLACK Maybe, these ideas are pointing to something mystical and true. And perhaps i am judging hte idea, n...
DONALD MILLER My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them──by which means my letters sometim...
JANE AUSTEN By my reckoning, I'm about 100 kilometers from Pathfinder. Technically it's called "Carl Sagan Memor...
ANDY WEIR In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my content...
ANITA BROOKNER If you are cast in a different mould to the majority, it is no merit of yours: Nature did it.
CHARLOTTE BRONTE Find people that are great and learn from them, be selfless with all of the great knowledge that you...
JOE LARKIN Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do not exist, and that religion is either a mistak...
EMMETT F. FIELDS The medal contention will be very intense.
GAO ZHIDAN We have to look at all the ideas that have been generated and see where there are common ideas, thin...
ALAN HOLT No work is of such merit as to instruct from a mere cursory perusal.
UNKNOWN I quite like the element of surprise, and as much as I have my ideas, I always appreciate ideas that...
SAM CLAFLIN We're excited to have the opportunity to showcase these fantastic films while they're still in conte...
EAMONN BOWLES If you are any competent musician, if you have creative ideas, ideas of songs, of arrangements, in a...
BILL WYMAN I'm just hoping to be in contention with the top runners, staying in that front group.
ASHLEY AITKEN The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. . -Carl Sagan.
CARL SAGAN The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas...
EDWARD DE BONO The world more often rewards the appearances of merit than merit itself.
FRANÇOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD It is also well worth your observation, that the grand contention with us, is, not who shall sing lo...
WILLIAM BILLINGS If there was strife and contention in the home, very little else in life could compensate for it.
LAWANA BLACKWELL Why be greedy when you can have it all.
ANTHONY T. HINCKS Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, o...
FRANCIS BACON Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, ...
FRANCIS BACON By merit raised To that bad eminence.
JOHN MILTON ... every hypothesis is a construction, and because of this it is an authentic theory. In so far as ...
JOSé ORTEGA Y GASSET My contention is that that style is just as stylized as an ornate style.
RICK MOODY There has never been any great tangible thing without any minute or great intangible thing. The grea...
ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Ideas come from Ideas that originate from an Idea
ALAN A. PAOLINI The world more often rewards outward signs of merit than merit itself.
LA ROCHEFOUCAUL

More Dr. Carl Sagan

The Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experie...
DR. CARL SAGAN There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the apertu...
DR. CARL SAGAN When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he acce...
DR. CARL SAGAN Never utter these words: 'I do not know this, therefore it is false.' One must study to know; know t...
DR. CARL SAGAN Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we this way and not some other? What does it mean to be h...
DR. CARL SAGAN That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever h...
DR. CARL SAGAN Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
DR. CARL SAGAN It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfyi...
DR. CARL SAGAN Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
DR. CARL SAGAN Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also ...
DR. CARL SAGAN The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we k...
DR. CARL SAGAN I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, ...
DR. CARL SAGAN It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fift...
DR. CARL SAGAN You have to know the past to understand the present.
DR. CARL SAGAN I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem y...
DR. CARL SAGAN We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason...
DR. CARL SAGAN I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary e...
DR. CARL SAGAN Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the war...
DR. CARL SAGAN We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing...
DR. CARL SAGAN For most of human history we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Who are we? What are we? We ...
DR. CARL SAGAN Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucke...
DR. CARL SAGAN We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows a...
DR. CARL SAGAN Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how ...
DR. CARL SAGAN Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
DR. CARL SAGAN Who will speak for Planet Earth?
DR. CARL SAGAN The wind whips through the canyons of the American Southwest, and there is no one to hear it but us ...
DR. CARL SAGAN Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowe...
DR. CARL SAGAN Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to ...
DR. CARL SAGAN The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.
DR. CARL SAGAN If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
DR. CARL SAGAN But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniu...
DR. CARL SAGAN I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary s...
DR. CARL SAGAN Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
DR. CARL SAGAN All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single lar...
DR. CARL SAGAN In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my positio...
DR. CARL SAGAN Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is ow...
DR. CARL SAGAN We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think its forever.
DR. CARL SAGAN I don’t feel rejected by the sky. I’m a part of it- tiny, to be sure, but everything is tiny com...
DR. CARL SAGAN ... the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect the brain is like ...
DR. CARL SAGAN We are a way for the cosmos to know itself
DR. CARL SAGAN We are star-stuff
DR. CARL SAGAN The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
DR. CARL SAGAN Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowe...
DR. CARL SAGAN For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
DR. CARL SAGAN It's better to light a candle then to curse the darkness.
DR. CARL SAGAN We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and techno...
DR. CARL SAGAN A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science,...
DR. CARL SAGAN A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity...
DR. CARL SAGAN Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
DR. CARL SAGAN 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