Carl Sagan Quotes - Page 21

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• Because men, compared to male chimps, have such relatively small testicles (large testicles indicate a species where many males mate, one after the other, with the same female), we might guess that promiscuous societies were uncommon in the immediate human past.

  Carl Sagan

  Past, Men, Males

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• Science is far from a perfect instrument of knowledge. It's just the best we have.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Perfect, Instruments

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.51, Ballantine Books

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• In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."

  Carl Sagan

  Change, Science, Theoretical Physics

  Keynote address at CSICOP conference, 1987.

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• All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.

  Carl Sagan

  Guarantees That, Risk, Elements

  Carl Sagan, Jerald F. TerHorst, Allan J. Mayer, Sharon S. McKern, Laurence J. Peter (1980). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”

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• I believe that even a smattering of such findings in modern science and mathematics is far more compelling and exciting than most of the doctrines of pseudoscience, whose practitioners were condemned as early as the fifth century B.C. by the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus as “nigh -walkers, magicians, priests of Bacchus, priestesses of the wine-vat, mystery-mongers.” But science is more intricate and subtle, reveals a much richer imiverse, and powerfully evokes our sense of wonder.

  Carl Sagan

  Wine, Science, Night

  "Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science".

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• Is it fair to be suspicious of an entire profession because of a few bad apples? There are at least two important differences, it seems to me. First, no one doubts that science actually works, whatever mistaken and fraudulent claim may from time to time be offered. But whether there are any miraculous cures from faith-healing, beyond the body's own ability to cure itself, is very much at issue. Secondly, the expose' of fraud and error in science is made almost exclusively by science. But the exposure of fraud and error in faith-healing is almost never done by other faith-healers.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Healing, Issues

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• Science is more than a body of knowledge. It's a way of thinking: a way of skeptically interrogating the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Thinking, Body, Way

  Carl Sagan, Tom Head (2006). “Conversations with Carl Sagan”, p.143, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares.

  Carl Sagan

  Beautiful, Dream, Nightmare

  "Fictional character: Alien". "Contact", www.imdb.com. 1997.

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• At the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion.

  Carl Sagan

  Atheist, Religion, Pseudoscience

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.41, Ballantine Books

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• Any faith that admires truth, that strives to know God, must be brave enough to accommodate the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Brave, Enough, Strive

  Carl Sagan (1997). “Contact”, p.420, Simon and Schuster

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• UFOs: The reliable cases are uninteresting and in the interesting cases are unreliable.

  Carl Sagan

  Interesting, Cases, Ufo

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

  Carl Sagan

  Groups, Cosmos, Awareness

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.371, Ballantine Books

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• We invest far off places with a certain romance... Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game; none of them lasts for ever. Your own life, or your bands, or even your species - might be owed to a restless few, drawn by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands, and new worlds.

  Carl Sagan

  Summer, Winter, Land

  Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (2011). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, p.15, Ballantine Books

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• There are more potential combinations of DNA [physical forms] than there are atoms in the universe.

  Carl Sagan

  Dna, Atoms, Form

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• What began in deadly competition has helped us to see that global cooperation is the essential precondition for our survival. Travel is broadening. It's time to hit the road again.

  Carl Sagan

  Competition, Survival, Essentials

  Carl Sagan (1994). “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”, Random House Incorporated

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• Science is a collaborative enterprise, spanning the generations. When it permits us to see the far side of some new horizon, we remember those who prepared the way - seeing for them also.

  Carl Sagan

  New Horizons, Generations, Way

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• I never said it. Honest. Oh, I said there are maybe 100 billion galaxies and 10 billion trillion stars. It's hard to talk about the Cosmos without using big numbers. I said "billion" many times on the Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said "billions and billions." For one thing, it's too imprecise. How many billions are "billions and billions"? A few billion? Twenty billion? A hundred billion? "Billions and billions" is pretty vague. When we reconfigured and updated the series, I checked-and sure enough, I never said it.

  Carl Sagan

  Stars, Numbers, People

  "Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium". Book by Carl Sagan, 1997.

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• My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings - what we sometimes call "mind" - are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more.

  Carl Sagan

  Anatomy And Physiology, Brain, Mind

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.7, Ballantine Books

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• Thus the recent rapid evolution of human intelligence is not only the cause of but also the only conceivable solution to the many serious problems that beset us.

  Carl Sagan

  Causes, Serious, Evolution

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.4, Ballantine Books

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• Goddard represented a unique combination of visionary dedication and technological brilliance. He studied physics because he needed physics to get to Mars. In reading the notebooks of Robert Goddard, I am struck by how powerful his exploratory and scientific motivations were - and how influental speculative ideas, even erroneous ones, can be on the shaping of the future.

  Carl Sagan

  Notebook, Motivation, Powerful

  Carl Sagan (1979). “Broca's brain: reflections on the romance of science”, Random House Inc

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• Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you.

  Carl Sagan

  Wish, Mars, Reason

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• Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species.

  Carl Sagan

  Thoughtful, Keys, Civilization

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.172, Ballantine Books

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• The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.

  Carl Sagan

  Ozone Layer, Together, Layers

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• Both the Freudian and the Platonic metaphors emphasize the considerable independence of and tension among the constituent parts of the psyche, a point that characterizes the human condition.

  Carl Sagan

  Psychology, Independence, Metaphor

  Carl Sagan (2012). “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence”, p.83, Ballantine Books

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• Modern Darwinism makes it abundantly clear that many less ruthless traits, some not always admired by robber barons and Fuhrers - altruism, general intelligence, compassion - may be the key to survival.

  Carl Sagan

  Life, Compassion, Keys

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