Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that exploration and curiosity are fundamental to human nature.
Carl Sagan emphasizes the inherent nature of humanity to explore and seek knowledge. No matter how much we learn or where we go, we continue to possess a wanderer's spirit, always looking for new experiences and understanding in the vast universe around us.
In practice
During a graduation speech to inspire students to embrace their adventurous spirit.
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
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.
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
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.
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.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
It's that wonderful old-fashioned idea that others come first and you come second. This was the whole ethic by which I was brought up. Others matter more than you do, so 'don't fuss, dear; get on with it.'
It is only our deeds that reveal who we are.
The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the less we can think.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
We need to have empathy. When we lose empathy, we lose our humanity.
Deeper than our instinct to live is our longing to be alive.
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