Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the unmatched reliability of scientific inquiry compared to other belief systems.
Carl Sagan highlights the unmatched accuracy and dependability of science as a method of understanding the universe. Unlike religious or mythical frameworks, science relies on evidence, experimentation, and observation, establishing a strong foundation for knowledge that no other human institution has been able to replicate.
Themes
ScienceReliabilityKnowledgeAccuracyInquiry
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the importance of education, this quote can reinforce the value of scientific literacy.
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.
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How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
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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.
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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.
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The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
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Similar quotes
Science demands from a man all his life. If you had two lives that would not be enough for you. Be passionate in your work and in your searching.
Ivan PavlovRead
...99 percent confident that the world really was getting warmer and that there was a high degree of probability that it was due to human-made greenhouse gases.
James HansenRead
We can trace things back to the earlier stages of the Big Bang, but we still don't know what banged and why it banged. That's a challenge for 21st-century science.
Martin ReesRead
If spiritual science is to do the same for spirit that natural science has done for nature, it must investigate quite differently from the latter. It must find ways and means of penetrating into the sphere of the spiritual, a domain which cannot be perceived with outer physical senses nor apprehended with the intellect which is bound to the brain.
Rudolf SteinerRead
The main reason why people should care about research in fundamental physics is the same reason they care about astronomy and cosmology. People, children, want to know what we're made out of, how it works, and why the universe is the way it is.
David GrossRead
Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves.
Richard P. FeynmanRead