American - Scientist | November 9, 1934 - December 20, 1996
It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience.
Carl Sagan
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I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.
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The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
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Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
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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.
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We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am the great silent spaces between worlds.'
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You probably don't need more weapons than what's required to destroy every city on earth. There's only 2,300 cities. So, the United States, by that criteria, only needs 2,300 nuclear weapons - well, we've got more than 25,000!
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The professed function of the nuclear weapons on each side is to prevent the other side from using their nuclear weapons. If that's all it is, then we've gotta as: how many nuclear weapons do you need to do that?
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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?
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The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking - it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.
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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.
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