263 quotes
I had become friendly with a group of people who occasionally smoked cannabis, irregularly, but with evident pleasure.
Essay as "Mr. X (1969)
I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Broca's Brain (1979)
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.
Cosmos (1980)
We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
Cosmos (1980)
We could not guess how different from us they (extraterrestrials) might be. It was hard enough to guess the intentions of our elected representatives in Washington.
Contact (1985)
War is murder writ large.
Cosmos (1980)
Superstition is marked not by its pretension to a body of knowledge but by its method of seeking truth.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
The enterprise of knowledge is consistent surely with science; it should be with religion, and it is essential for the welfare of the human species.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
What I'm saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job.
Contact (1985)
Do we, holding that the gods exist,
deceive ourselves with insubstantial dreams
and lies, while random careless chance and
change alone control the world?
Contact (1985)
Matter is composed chiefly of nothing.
Cosmos (1980)
In that case, on behalf of Earth life, I urge that, with full knowledge of our limitations, we vastly increase our knowledge of the Solar System and then begin to settle other worlds.
If we like them, they're freedom fighters, she thought. If we don't like them, they're terrorists. In the unlikely case we can't make up our minds, they're temporarily only guerrillas.
Contact (1985)
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is the search for a generally acceptable cosmic context for the human species. In the deepest sense, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves.
Broca's Brain (1979)
The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
It is, I think, very interesting that we have a world in the outer solar system that is loaded with the stuff of life.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
I say "Listen closely, you sonofabitch of the morning! This stuff is real!"
Essay as "Mr. X (1969)
The children of the privileged grow up expecting that, through no particular effort of their own, they will retain a privileged position.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
At the molecular level, we are all virtually identical.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
Whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.
Cosmos (1980)