263 quotes
Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact.
The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.
Cosmos (1980)
When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
If there's nothing in here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
I stress that the universe is made mostly of nothing, that something is the exception.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)
I think people in power have a vested interest to oppose critical thinking.
We are set irrevocably, I believe, on a path that will take us to the stars—unless in some monstrous capitulation to stupidity and greed, we destroy ourselves first.
Broca's Brain (1979)
I proffer the following ideas with a substantial degree of trepidation; I know very well that many of them are speculative and can be proved or disproved on the anvil of experiment.
The Dragons of Eden (1977)
There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
All that brave Athenian talk about democracy applied only to a privileged few.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
There can be an infinite number of polygons, but only five regular solids.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
We are star stuff, which has taken its destiny into its own hands.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
What distinguishes our species is thought.
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990)
What the Malleus comes down to, pretty much, is that if you’re accused of witchcraft, you’re a witch. Torture is an unfailing means to demonstrate the validity of the accusation.
Why is “energy independence” mentioned so often as a justification for environmentally risky nuclear power plants or offshore drilling—but so rarely to justify insulation, efficient cars, or wind and solar energy?
Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millenium (1997)
Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us … We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.