Neil deGrasse Tyson Philosophical Quotes

Astrophysicist, Science Communicator

Philosophical

“I was raised Catholic. But if someone says I was raised in some religion, that's insufficient information to actually know what was going on. The real question is Was the religion in the household? The answer is no. Important decisions in the household were executed rationally and secularly. So as a result, the foundations of my reasoning derive not from religion but from the rational analysis of circumstances.”

Real Decision Catholic

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Neil deGrasse Tyson

Astrophysicist, Science Communicator

Philosophical

“It could be that these other civilizations, if they are far more advanced intellectually than we are, would not even measure our existence as a blip on the intelligence radar. They could be so advanced that we are to them what worms are to us.”

Civilization Existence Worms

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Philosophical

“Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink-or never arise at all-and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.”

Differences Views Perspective

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Philosophical

“One of the greatest features of science is that it doesn't matter where you were born, and it doesn't matter what the belief systems of your parents might have been: If you perform the same experiment that someone else did, at a different time and place, you'll get the same result.”

Different Might Parent

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Philosophical

“There's an old saying in the space community: 'If God wanted us to be a spacefaring species, he would have given us a moon'.”

Space Community Moon

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Philosophical

“We can trace the elements. They were forged in the centers of high-mass stars that went unstable at the ends of their lives, they exploded, scattered their enriched contents across the galaxy, sprinkled into gas clouds that then collapsed and formed stars and planets and life.”

Stars Science Clouds

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Philosophical

“New generations of humans inherit the acquired discoveries of generations past, allowing cosmic insight to accumulate without limit. Each discovery of science therefore adds a rung to a ladder of knowledge whose end is not in sight because we are building the ladder as we go along. As far as I can tell, as we assemble and ascend this ladder, we will forever uncover the secrets of the universe - one by one.”

Past Sight Discovery

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Philosophical

“The chunks of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 were so large, and were moving so fast, that each hit Jupiter with at least the equivalent energy of the dinosaur-killing collision between Earth and an asteroid 65 million years ago. Whatever damage Jupiter sustained, one thing is for sure: it's got no dinosaurs left.”

Years Moving Energy

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Philosophical

“In any case, the leading edge of our "on purpose" radio signals is 30 light-years away and, if intercepted, may mend the aliens' image of us based on the radio bubble of our television shows. But this will happen only if the aliens can somehow determine which type of signal comes closer to the truth of who we are, and what our cosmic identity deserves to be.”

Years Light Identity

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Philosophical

“So not enough people in this world, I think, carry a cosmic perspective with them. It could be life-changing.”

People Thinking Life Changing

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Philosophical

“We still refer to sunrise, sunset. That only has meaning if you think that Earth is in the center of things, and everything is moving around us. So even though we know intellectually Earth goes around the sun, the language is still pre-Copernican, as we would call it.”

Thinking Moving Sunset

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Philosophical

“Our five senses are faulty data-taking devices, and they need help.”

Science Data Five Senses

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Neil deGrasse Tyson — Philosophical Quotes

Neil deGrasse Tyson Quotes