Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they're, of course, based upon what we know, which is ourselves and other animals. So we make up stories about how the world was hatched from a cosmic egg or created after the mating of cosmic deities or by some fiat of a powerful being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We create myths to explain our understanding of the world based on our experiences and knowledge.
In this quote, Carl Sagan highlights the human tendency to create myths and stories as a means to comprehend the world around us. He suggests that these narratives are deeply rooted in our own experiences and observations, often projecting our understanding onto the universe in imaginative ways, whether it's through the concept of a cosmic egg or divine creations. This reflects not only our desire to seek answers but also our fundamental connection to the natural world and all living beings.
Themes
MythsUnderstandingStoriesCosmicCreation
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on cosmic history, one could use this quote to emphasize the role of storytelling in human understanding.
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
The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them... and royally squander their lives with her.
Nikos KazantzakisRead
People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.
Anne FrankRead
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism.
John Stuart MillRead
All of our actions have in their doing the seed of their undoing. ... That in her creation of her children there should be the unspeakable promise of their death, for by their birth she had created mortal beings.
Louise ErdrichRead
Climbing for speed records will probably become more popular, a mania which has just begun. Climbers climb not just to see how fast and efficiently they can do it, but far worse, to see how much faster and more efficiently they are than a party which did the same climb a few days before. The climb becomes secondary, no more important than a racetrack. Man is pitted against man.
Yvon ChouinardRead
What Must I Do to Be Saved? It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.
Cotton MatherRead