Carl Sagan Quotes About Science

Quotes about: Science

Acceptance Age Agnosticism Aliens Animals Arguing Art

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

Carl Sagan

Positive, Hope, Educational

Nobel Award Ceremony Speech by Professor Olga Botner, Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 2017.
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Carl Sagan

Motivational, Education, Knowledge

"Why We Need To Understand Science". The Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 14, Issue 3, www.csicop.org. Spring 1990.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Carl Sagan

Death, Witty, Atheist

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.32, Ballantine Books
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, Mean, Science

Carl Sagan (1979). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”, Random House Inc
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

Carl Sagan

God, Spiritual, Philosophy

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.54, Ballantine Books
The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

Carl Sagan

Science, Doe, Spirituality

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.54, Ballantine Books
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Carl Sagan

Knowledge, Science, Thinking

Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.15, Ballantine Books
The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

Carl Sagan

Ambition, Science, Perfect

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.230, Ballantine Books
Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.

Carl Sagan

Science, Thinking, People

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.55, Ballantine Books
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.

Carl Sagan

Taken, Science, Long

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.314, Ballantine Books
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.

Carl Sagan

Funny, Brother, Laughter

Broca's Brain ch. 5 (1979)
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, Science, Ideas

"Contact". Book by Carl Sagan. Chapter 14, p. 244, 1985.
Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?

Carl Sagan

Inspirational, Life, Truth

Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.145, Univ. Press of Mississippi
A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet. One of the great revelations of the age of space exploration is the image of the earth finite and lonely, somehow vulnerable, bearing the entire human species through the oceans of space and time.

Carl Sagan

Lonely, War, Ocean

"Cosmos: A Personal Voyage". Documentary (1990 Update). Episode 13: "Who Speaks for Earth?", 1990.
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.

Carl Sagan

Children, Kids, Science

Psychology Today Interview, www.psychologytoday.com. January 1, 1996.
But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble.

Carl Sagan

Science, Thinking, Understanding

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.234, Ballantine Books
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true.

Carl Sagan

Science, Prejudice, Vastness

"Wonder and Skepticism". The Skeptical Inquirer 19 (1), www.csicop.org. January/February 1995.
We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.

Carl Sagan

Inspirational, Motivational, Atheist

"President Obama Quotes Carl Sagan at Rutgers: 'Embrace What is True Rather Than What Feels Good'" by Hemant Mehta, www.patheos.com. May 15, 2016.
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, War, Science

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.31, Ballantine Books
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

Carl Sagan

Inspirational, Nature, Hipster

Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.242, Ballantine Books
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 awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.

Carl Sagan

Science, Religion, Stressed

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.71, Ballantine Books
If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.

Carl Sagan

Science, Acceptance, Ideas

Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.391, Ballantine Books
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

Carl Sagan

Change, Learning, Humility

Keynote address at CSICOP conference in 1987. "Do Science and the Bible Conflict?" Book by Judson Poling, p. 30, 2003.
All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.

Carl Sagan

Science, Civilization
The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God,' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

Carl Sagan

Atheist, Fall, Mean

"Scientists & Their Gods". U.S. News & World Report, Vol. 111, 1991.

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Born: November 9, 1934
Died: December 20, 1996
Occupation: Astronomer
Cite this Page: Citation

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