Best Carl Sagan Quotes

Carl Sagan Quotes About The Future, Death, War, The Universe, Society, Dream & Motivational! Carl Sagan was one of the famous scientists worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. He explored alien intelligence, lobbied for nuclear disarmament, and co-wrote and presented ‘Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.'” In 1934, Carl Edward Sagan was born in New York City. Carl went to the University of Chicago, where he studied planets and looked into the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. In 1968, he became the director of Cornell’s Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He worked with NASA on many different projects too.

Sagan started to speak out on various fringe themes, such as the possibility of interplanetary transportation, the belief that aliens visited Earth thousands of years ago, and that animals like “gasbags” reside high in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Additionally, he spoke before Congress to discuss UFOs, a hot topic among newspaper readers, and his plan to turn Venus into an earthly home.

Carl Sagan was the most well-known American scientist due to his penned books. In terms of importance, his study on alien life remains one of the top concerns of space research organizations today. Over more than three decades, Sagan wrote hundreds of research articles, all published in peer-reviewed journals and books. His best-known works are ‘Pale Blue Dot’ and ‘The Dragons of Eden,’ which are science fiction novels.

Sagan received several honors during his career, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1977, 1981) and the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1994), just a few of the most notable. At 62, he died cause of pneumonia, a consequence of myelodysplasia, a bone-marrow disease.

Best Carl Sagan Quotes

1. “We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.”-Carl Sagan
2. “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”-Carl Sagan
3. “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.”-Carl Sagan
4. “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.”-Carl Sagan
5. “I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.”-Carl Sagan
6. “But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”-Carl Sagan
7. “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.”-Carl Sagan
8. “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”-Carl Sagan
9. “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.”-Carl Sagan
10. “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”-Carl Sagan
11.  “The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.”-Carl Sagan
12. “Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?”-Carl Sagan
13. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”-Carl Sagan
14. “Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.”-Carl Sagan
15. “If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?”-Carl Sagan
16. “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”-Carl Sagan
17. “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”-Carl Sagan
18. “We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”-Carl Sagan
19. “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”-Carl Sagan
20. “I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.”-Carl Sagan
21. “Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.”-Carl Sagan
22. “All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.”-Carl Sagan
23. “When you make the finding yourself – even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light – you’ll never forget it.” -Carl Sagan
24. “The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.”-Carl Sagan
25. “Humans everywhere share the same goals when the context is large enough. And the study of the Cosmos provides the largest possible context. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.”-Carl Sagan
26. “It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English—up to fifty words used in correct context—no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.”-Carl Sagan
27. “We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.” -Carl Sagan
28. “I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.”-Carl Sagan
29. “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”-Carl Sagan
30. “Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”-Carl Sagan