Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Humanity is a result of a long evolutionary process and continues to evolve.
In this quote, Carl Sagan emphasizes the continuous nature of evolution and challenges the notion that humans represent the peak of biological development. He urges us to recognize our place as part of an ongoing evolutionary journey, rather than as a final destination in the grand narrative of life.
Themes
EvolutionHumanityBiologyTransitionalCreation
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about human evolution.
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
Of all creatures that breathe and move upon the earth, nothing is bred that is weaker than man.
HomerRead
Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth.
Eckhart TolleRead
Human history began as an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience. At this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization.
Erich FrommRead
At some point along the way, I stopped being a writer, and I became a black writer. I never used to be a black writer. I used to write 'Spider-Man,' 'Green Lantern,' whatever was lying around. 'Thor,' 'Hulk,' whatever. Now, if the phone rings or when the phone rings, it's almost exclusively some project that has something to do with my ethnicity.
Christopher PriestRead
A man falling into dark waters seeks a momentary footing even on sliding stones.
George EliotRead
In all professions each affects a look and an exterior to appear what he wishes the world to believe that he is. Thus we may say that the whole world is made up of appearances.
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead