Carl Sagan Quotes

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
-Carl Sagan

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition."
-Carl Sagan

"Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves."
-Carl Sagan

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
-Carl Sagan

"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?"
-Carl Sagan

"All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value."
-Carl Sagan

"In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams!"
-Carl Sagan

"What's the harm of a little mystification? It sure beats boring statistical analyses."
-Carl Sagan

"The first priest was the first rogue who met the first fool."
-Carl Sagan

"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent."
-Carl Sagan

"I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star."
-Carl Sagan

"Anyone who's ever significantly changed the course of humanity has either been a Crackpot, a Heretic, or a Dissident. In the case of Albert Einstein, he was all three!"
-Carl Sagan

"The significance of a finding that there are other beings who share this universe with us would be absolutely phenomenal, it would be an epochal event in human history."
-Carl Sagan

"In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness."
-Carl Sagan

"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."
-Carl Sagan

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time."
-Carl Sagan

"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 in Genius quotes.

"We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."
-Carl Sagan

"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."
-Carl Sagan

"It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese."
-Carl Sagan

"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?"
-Carl Sagan

"For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves, ... This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise."
-Carl Sagan

"I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true."
-Carl Sagan in Science quotes.

"Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out."
-Carl Sagan

"Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism."
-Carl Sagan

"If you want to bake an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the Universe. "
-Carl Sagan

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense."
-Carl Sagan