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Carl Sagan Quotes

1934–1996 United States

United States
Academics
Activists
Agnostics
Astronomers

Also known as: Carl sagan, Dr. Carl Sagan, Sagan, Carl, The Demon-Haunted World

Random Carl Sagan quote

263 quotes

Humans are very good at dreaming, although you'd never know it from your television.

Contact (1985)

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

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.

Cosmos (1980)

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.

Cosmos (1980)

It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension.

The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)

Relativity does set limits on what humans can ultimately do. But the universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human aspirations.

Cosmos (1980)

This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.

The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)

In the vastness of the Cosmos there must be other civilizations far older and more advanced than ours.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)

People are rarely grateful for a demonstration of their credulity.

Broca's Brain (1979)

Humans are good, she knew, at discerning subtle patterns that are really there, but equally so at imagining them when they are altogether absent.

Contact (1985)

Every thinking person fears nuclear war and every technological nation plans for it. Everyone knows it's madness, and every country has an excuse.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)

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

Cosmos (1980)

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

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1992)

We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster.

Bringing Science Down to Earth (1994)

It is important to distinguish between the amount of information and the quality of that information.

The Dragons of Eden (1977)

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

The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)

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

The Dragons of Eden (1977)

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

The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are.

Cosmos (1980)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Carl Sagan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.