Carl Sagan Quotes — Page 28

Astronomer, Astrophysicist

Optimistic

“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.”

Running Responsibility Space

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Carl Sagan

Astronomer, Astrophysicist

Philosophical

“A general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the god portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy much less of a universe.”

World Views Tiny

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Philosophical

“Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home.”

Home Science Humility

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Philosophical

“While our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have, through our brains, a much richer opportunity to blaze new behavioral and cultural pathways on short timescales.”

Opportunity Science Brain

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Carl Sagan

Astronomer, Astrophysicist

“The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves - without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster.”

Way Mind Unbiased

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Angry

“An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence.”

Doe Atheist Certain

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Philosophical

“Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don't conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts. It urges on us a fine balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything - new ideas and established wisdom.”

Thinking Ideas Balance

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Philosophical

“A googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number 1... no matter what number you have in mind, infinity is larger still.”

Mind Numbers Infinity

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Philosophical

“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.”

Goal Purpose Custodians

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Philosophical

“The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from an investigation of the governing physics.”

War Science Winter

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Philosophical

“They (i. e., the Pythagoreans) did not advocate the free confrontation of conflicting points of view. Instead, like all orthodox religions, they practised a rigidity that prevented them from correcting their errors.”

Views Errors Rigidity

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Spiritual

“I think the discomfort that some people feel in going to the monkey cages at the zoo is a warning sign.”

People Thinking Zoos

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