Occupation: Astronomer Birth: November 9, 1934 Death: December 20, 1996
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous..
We are one species. We are starstuff..
We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evol….
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-co….
Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid..
We are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not..
When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the har….
I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - [...] when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, ….
I’m struck again by the irony that spaceflight-conceived in the cauldron of nationalist rivalries and hatreds-brings with it a stunning transnational….
Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species..
You're capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares..
Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.
In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other..
Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Ea….
What a splendid perspective contact with a profoundly different civilization might provide! In a cosmic setting vast and old beyond ordinary human un….
Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works..
I am not an atheist. An atheist is someone who has compelling evidence that there is no Judeo-Christian-Islamic God. I am not that wise, but neither ….
If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate....Try science..
Our intelligence is imperfect, surely, and newly arisen; the ease with which it can be sweet-talked, overwhelmed, or subverted by other hardwired pro….
The Universe forces those who live in it to understand it. Those creatures who find everyday experience a muddled jumble of events with no predictabi….
Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage. Bu….