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eef6e84 Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, .. perspective space Carl Sagan
91c9df6 Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. individuality love mercy Carl Sagan
6951fe4 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. stars cosmos sense-of-wonder dna Carl Sagan
b052031 Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. spirituality science philosophy sense-of-wonder Carl Sagan
1641d6d If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Carl Sagan
9b51b25 For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. understanding religion science truth delusion knowledge Carl Sagan
401651c What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never .. words literature reading writing Carl Sagan
5f4bce0 One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. history rationalization corruption society government capitalism power oppression Carl Sagan
6f8dd8e For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. Carl Sagan
2d331c3 We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. Carl Sagan
9ba2b36 Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage suc.. spirituality religion science science-vs-religion Carl Sagan
eab0413 Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. Carl Sagan
629df3a The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space. universe seti Carl Sagan
95ebdd9 You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other. Carl Sagan
d80715d I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. immortality atheism Carl Sagan
76e817c But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. laughter humor philosophy Carl Sagan
26fd653 We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. science thought-provoking Carl Sagan
541101c How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?" Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way." A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and .. religion science god cosmology epistemology organized-religion Carl Sagan
023b2f2 I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably quest.. reason 9-11-01 99-percent fox-news globalism media-barons media-of-the-united-states nostradamus occupy-wall-street outsourcing rupert-murdoch proud-ignorance predictions evangelicalism future-prediction prediction atheism media reality-tv mysticism Carl Sagan
70ab1bc Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civiliza.. libraries history education wisdom civilization knowledge Carl Sagan
db0b006 The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. universe beauty science philosophy cosmos Carl Sagan
25dab40 we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers Carl Sagan
057dba5 The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. Carl Sagan
872bd85 Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, .. science inspirational astronomy space-travel Carl Sagan
ed0296a Exploration is in our nature. 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. Carl Sagan
5b9abbe Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, .. science inspirational space-travel Carl Sagan
ca28a8d The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries. universe life cosmos mystery Carl Sagan
8ec1b19 She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. Carl Sagan
2c1cf0c Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. science extinction survival Carl Sagan
a8b9003 If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a percent of the contents of the greatest libraries of our time. The trick is to know which books to read. Carl Sagan
8c7561f If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. truth inspirational destruction Carl Sagan
c6f650a Fireflies out on a warm summer's night, seeing the urgent, flashing, yellow-white phosphorescence below them, go crazy with desire; moths cast to the winds an enchantment potion that draws the opposite sex, wings beating hurriedly, from kilometers away; peacocks display a devastating corona of blue and green and the peahens are all aflutter; competing pollen grains extrude tiny tubes that race each other down the female flower's orifice to .. Carl Sagan
ac1a0b8 The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half t.. hindu vedantism vedas cosmos cosmology Carl Sagan
3a3e1e0 The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal. meaning religion god truth purpose knowledge Carl Sagan
dc6236b The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that.. science sagan knowledge Carl Sagan
06c4d8f Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of view of others, and not just those in power; to contemplate--with the best teachers--the insights, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history. They allow people long dead to talk inside our heads. Books can accom.. Carl Sagan
ce465aa It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works -- that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red.. Carl Sagan
2f1808e Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic. Carl Sagan
8955dec But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine. Carl Sagan
2666f43 Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky. Before we devised artificial lights and atmospheric pollution and modern forms of nocturnal entertainment we watched the stars. There were practical calendar reasons of course but there was more to it than that. Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars.. stars skywatcher exploration nocturnal space night-sky Carl Sagan
aa90e20 Understanding is a kind of ecstasy understanding Carl Sagan
6ad9594 In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie. [Dedication to Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, in Cosmos] time marriage true-love joy science love immensity vastness wife space Carl Sagan
27606f4 One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millenia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time. Carl Sagan
e999d52 Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil. Carl Sagan
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