Perhaps we’ve never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon earth and decided there’s no sign of intelligent life.
Interpretation
Humanity may not appear intelligent enough to attract alien attention.
This quote by Neil Degrasse Tyson suggests that if extraterrestrial beings exist, they may have assessed Earth and determined that it does not display evidence of advanced intelligence. It prompts reflection on humanity's behavior and accomplishments, questioning whether our actions reflect true intelligence or if there is a lack thereof that could dissuade potential extraterrestrial visitors.
In practice
During a science seminar discussing the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.
The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification.
The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they're 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we're on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It's not a 50/50 story. It's not. Period.
As a scientist, I want to go to Mars and back to asteroids and the Moon because I'm a scientist. But I can tell you, I'm not so naive a scientist to think that the nation might not have geopolitical reasons for going into space.
In just one year, the expenditure of of the U.S.'s military budget is equivalent to the entire 50-year running budget of NASA combined.
One of my great laments is that education today seems to have... be less about passion and more about process, more about tactic or technique.
Lots of people think, well, we're humans; we're the most intelligent and accomplished species; we're in charge. Bacteria may have a different outlook: more bacteria live and work in one linear centimeter of your lower colon than all the humans who have ever lived. That's what's going on in your digestive tract right now. Are we in charge, or are we simply hosts for bacteria? It all depends on your outlook.
What the whole community comes to believe in grasps the individual as in a vise.
The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire
We all need someone to look at us. We can be divided into four categories according to the kind of look we wish to live under . . . The fourth category, the rarest, is the category of people who live in the imaginary eyes of those who are not present. They are the dreamers.
Poverty is a virtue which one can teach oneself.
I felt early on I wasn't going to be a respectable citizen.
Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.
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