Carl Sagan quotes - page 15

Many religions lay out a set of precepts... and claim that these instructions were given by a god or gods. (Carl Sagan)
And our small planet at this moment, here we face a critical branch point in history, what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. View quote
Carl Sagan
If we keep on with business as usual, the Earth will be warmed more every year. View quote
Carl Sagan
Perhaps we have, after all, decided to choose life. But we still have light years to go to ensure that choice. View quote
Carl Sagan
To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed. View quote
Carl Sagan
When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life. View quote
Carl Sagan
R is very large for LSD (which I've never taken) and reasonably short for cannabis. View quote
Carl Sagan
They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week. View quote
Carl Sagan
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. View quote
Carl Sagan
Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. View quote
Carl Sagan
Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil. It is as if there were a God who said to us, "I set before you two ways: You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It's up to you.”. (Carl Sagan)
What distinguishes our species is thought. View quote
Carl Sagan
But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. View quote
Carl Sagan
Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension. View quote
Carl Sagan
We need no longer be trapped in the genetically inherited behavior patterns of lizards and baboons: territoriality and aggression and dominance hierarchies. We are each of us largely responsible for what gets put in to our brains. For what as adults we wind up caring for and knowing about. View quote
Carl Sagan
In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. View quote
Carl Sagan
The mercantile tradition that had led to Ionian science also led to a slave economy. You could get richer if you owned a lot of slaves. View quote
Carl Sagan
Few found the similarity suspicious. View quote
Carl Sagan
It is, I think, very interesting that we have a world in the outer solar system that is loaded with the stuff of life. View quote
Carl Sagan
We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads - but to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. View quote
Carl Sagan
I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs. (Carl Sagan)
Books are patient where we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society. View quote
Carl Sagan
They wanted to know who was visiting the Moon these days. View quote
Carl Sagan
The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us. View quote
Carl Sagan
I can remember the night that I suddenly realized what it was like to be crazy, or nights when my feelings and perceptions were of a religious nature. View quote
Carl Sagan