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Faith is clearly not enough for many people. They crave hard evidence, scientific proof. They long for the scientific seal of approval, but are unwilling to put up with the rigorous standards of evidence that impart credibility to that seal.

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

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Faith

More quotes by Carl Sagan

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.

Cosmos (1980)

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Cosmos (1980)

As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky.

Cosmos (1980)

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

Contact (1985)

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

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

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Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

Thomas Jefferson Letter to Peter Carr (1787)

I had never doubted my own abilities, but I was quite prepared to believe that "the world" would decline to recognize them.

Colin Wilson Postscript to the Outsider (1967)

Love is the active, working principle in all true faith. It is its very soul, without which it is dead. "Faith works by love."

Jonathan Edwards Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Carl Sagan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.