Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
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 evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes humanity's connection to the cosmos and the importance of choices in shaping our future.
Carl Sagan's quote reflects on humanity's place in the vast universe, highlighting our emergence from billions of years of cosmic evolution. He urges us to appreciate our heritage and use our intelligence to enhance life and understand the universe, rather than engaging in self-destructive behaviors that would undermine our legacy.
Themes
CosmosLegacyEvolutionIntelligenceChoices
In practice
Example use cases
This quote would be a powerful opener for a speech about environmental responsibility and our role in preserving life on Earth.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes →In 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
There have been innumerable Temporary Seekers after the Truth-have you ever heard of a permanent one?
Mark TwainRead
As geographers, Sosius, crowd into the edges of their maps parts of the world which they do not know about, adding notes in the margin to the effect that beyond this lies nothing but sandy deserts full of wild beasts, and unapproachable bogs.
PlutarchRead
The most complete revenge is not to imitate the aggressor.
Marcus AureliusRead
Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
SophoclesRead
History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody understands at the time--and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
Hunter S. ThompsonRead
I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles threaded together by wires. I counted one, two, three... nineteen telephone poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn't see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.
Sylvia PlathRead