Explore Quotes by Carl Sagan

The old appeals to racial, sexual and religious chauvinism to rabid nationalist fervor, are beginning not to work.

The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them - the sense that we have a monopoly on the truth; that those other people who believe in all these stupid doctrines are morons; that if you're sensible, you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you. This is nonconstructive. It does not get our message across. It condemns us to permanent minority status.

If the constellations had been named in the twentieth century, I suppose we would see bicycles and refrigerators in the sky.

We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter.

Even through your hardest days, remember we are all made of stardust.

In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.

Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.

Religions are often state-protected nurseries of pseudoscience, although there's no reason why religions have to play that role. In a way, it's an artefact from times long gone.

Scientists make mistakes. Accordingly, it is the job of the scientist to recognize our weakness, to examine the widest range of opinions, to be ruthlessly self-critical. Science is a collective enterprise with the error-correction machinery often running smoothly.

How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?

It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.

There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe.

A general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the god portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy much less of a universe.

Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.

Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others?

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.

Every star may be a sun to someone.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience..... To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Science is not perfect. It's often misused; it's only a tool, but it's the best tool we have. Self-correcting , ever changing, applicable to everything: with this tool, we vanquish the impossible.

We have heard the rationales offered by the nuclear superpowers. We know who speaks for the nations. But who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for Earth?

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