Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Exploring space helps us understand the history of the universe and our place within it.
In this quote, Carl Sagan highlights the profound relationship between space and time. By observing distant celestial objects, we are not only witnessing their current state but also looking back in time to the very origins of the universe, such as the Big Bang. This perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of time, space, and our understanding of cosmic events.
Themes
SpaceTimeUniverseBig BangCosmosExploration
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about astrophysics, to explain the relationship between the universe and time.
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
Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.
Rod SerlingRead
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Thomas MalthusRead
You have ... been told that science grows like an organism. You have been told that, if we today see further than our predecessors, it is only because we stand on their shoulders. But this [Nobel Prize Presentation] is an occasion on which I should prefer to remember, not the giants upon whose shoulders we stood, but the friends with whom we stood arm in arm ... colleagues in so much of my work.
Peter MedawarRead
Now, radical forward thinking is offering hope for the future: Replacement body parts to order. A team of scientists in California believe that if you can design them on a computer, you should be able to print them out.
Stephen HawkingRead
I picture the vast realm of the sciences as an immense landscape scattered with patches of dark and light. The goal towards which we must work is either to extend the boundaries of the patches of light, or to increase their number. One of these tasks falls to the creative genius; the other requires a sort of sagacity combined with perfectionism.
Denis DiderotRead
Scientists never stop asking. They're little kids who never grew up.
Sylvia EarleRead