Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
Not all birds can fly. What separates the flyers from the walkers is the ability to take off.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The ability to succeed often depends on one's willingness to take risks and embrace opportunities.
In this quote, Carl Sagan emphasizes the importance of taking initiative and seizing opportunities in life. While not everyone has the same abilities or circumstances, those who are willing to take off and strive for greater heights can distinguish themselves from those who remain grounded. It serves as a metaphor for personal growth and the potential that lies within everyone to rise above their limitations, suggesting that action and courage are key to achieving one's aspirations.
Themes
BirdsFlightAbilityTake OffOpportunity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech to encourage people to take risks in their careers.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
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 SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times, what people need is not a brilliant mind that speaks but a special heart that listens.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
I pointed to the wound. "It's missing," I said. My grandmother smiled, and that was all it took for me to stop seeing the scar, and to recognize her again. "Yes," she said. "But see how much of me is left?
Jodi PicoultRead
I knew that my staying up would not change the election result if I were defeated, while if elected I had a hard day ahead of me. So I thought a night's rest was best in any event.
Benjamin HarrisonRead
All the great evils which men cause to each other because of certain intentions, desires, opinions, or religious principles, are likewise due to non-existence, because they originate in ignorance, which is absence of wisdom.
MaimonidesRead
I have talked with great men, and I do not see how they differ from others.
Abraham LincolnRead
In the company of friends, writers can discuss their books, economists the state of the economy, lawyers their latest cases, and businessmen their latest acquisitions, but mathematicians cannot discuss their mathematics at all. And the more profound their work, the less understandable it is.
Alfred AdlerRead