Neil deGrasse Tyson quotes - page 4

I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don't. (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Every living thing is a masterpiece, written by nature and edited by evolution. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We are not simply in the universe, we are part of it. We are born from it. One might even say we have been empowered by the universe to figure itself out - and we have only just begun. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
You know that passage in the Bible that says, "And the meek shall inherit the Earth”? Always wondered if that was mistranslated. Perhaps it actually says, "And the geek shall inherit the Earth. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
There are no limits when you are surrounded by people who believe in you, or by people whose expectations are not set by the short-sighted attitudes of society, or by people who help to open doors of opportunity, not close them. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
That makes me want to grab people on the street and say, "have you heard this?" View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
A few years ago I got a phone call from a marketing executive who wanted to light up the Moon with the logo of her company. She wanted to know how she might proceed. After slamming down the phone, I called her back and politely explained why it was a bad idea. Other corporate executives have asked me how to put into orbit mile-wide luminous banners with catchy slogans written across them, much like the skywriting or flag-dragging airplanes you see at sports events or over the ocean from a crowded beach. I always threaten to send the light police after them. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Some of the most productive times in the histories of nations have been when they were badly stressed - economically, politically, culturally or socially. It's possible to be stressed to a point that more creativity is stimulated than would otherwise be the case. I think it is true that necessity is the mother of invention. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Halley shattered their monopoly, beating them at their own game. A game that no scientist had ever played before: Prophecy. -S01E03. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Life is too short for me to worry about something I have no control over that I don't even know will happen. People ask ‘if Earth is going to be swallowed by a black hole or if there is some disturbance in the spacetime continuum should we worry about it?'. My answer is ‘no' because you won't know about it until it crosses your... your place in space-time. Your beats come to you when nature decides it's the right time... be it the speed of sound, the speed of light, the speed of electrical impulses we will forever be victims of the time delay between information around us and our capacity to receive it. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I could just tell you it's all bunk; but then you wouldn't be empowered to understand why. Other than to quote, "Oh, Doctor Tyson said..." And I never want you to quote me citing my authority as a scientist for your knowing something. If that's what you have to resort to I have failed as an educator. As an educator, it's my duty to empower you to think. So that you can go forth and think accurate thoughts about how the world is put together. Inoculating you against the [people] out there who will exploit your ignorance on anything they possibly can. (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Ibn al-Haytham was the first person ever to set down the rules of science. -S01E05. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
No matter who you are, engaging in the quest to discover where and how things began tends to induce emotional fervor-as if knowing the beginning bestows upon you some form of fellowship with, or perhaps governance over, all that comes later. So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
If you ask adults how many teachers - out of the scores in elementary, middle school, high school, college and graduate school - made a singular impression on who and what they are, it's never more than three or four teachers. Everybody else is a distant second to this set.When we finally create a cloning machine, we should clone those teachers. Maybe that's 100 years from now, but that's at the top of my list. Until that happens, the educational system has not fully understood the causes and effects of achievement and success in life. There remains a culture that equates high grades with success in school and correlates success in school with success in life. That mentality is so deep within us that it may be inextricable from our behavior. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
[wrote_the_exam]What keeps me awake at night: wondering whether human species is just too stupid to figure out the Universe. I just wonder. I lose sleep over that. Because we define ourselves as intelligent- because we made up the test to say that. And we sit alone at the top of the intelligence chart because we invented the exam, and all the other species of life on Earth are not. So who's to say that the first species (us) to be intelligent (us) has just enough intelligence to actually decode everything that's decodable in the Cosmos? [...] Think of the next closest thing to us, the bonobo chimp- 98½% identical DNA, yet you cannot teach them trigonometry, they have no concept of it. So if that's only 1½% difference in our DNA- and so imagine 1½% beyond us, rather than below us, in intelligence. [...] Their toddlers would be talking about things that would completely confound us. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
What are the lessons to be learned from this journey of the mind? That humans are emotionally fragile, perennially gullible, hopelessly ignorant masters of an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos. Have a nice day. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science literacy is the artery through which the solutions of tomorrow's problems flow. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
It's the inspired student that continues to learn on their own. That's what separates the real achievers in the world from those who pedal along, finishing assignments. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Theory of Evolution, like the Theory of Gravity, is a scientific fact. Evolution really happened. Accepting our kinship with all life on earth is not only solid science, in my view, it's also a soaring spiritual experience. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all? View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
After your first job, is anyone asking you what your GPA was? No, they don't care. They ask you: Are you a good leader? Do people follow you? Do you have integrity? Are you innovative? Do you solve problems? Somebody's got to do that homework and redesign the educational system so that it can actually train people to be successful in life.I think the greatest teachers are not the ones that are best trained at educational tactics. I don't know a person who's ever said, "Boy, that teacher is so good! The teacher gives such good exams. That teacher gives such good homework sets!" (Neil deGrasse Tyson)
Yes, the universe had a beginning. Yes, the universe continues to evolve. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Yes, Einstein was a badass. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god's blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a total solar eclipse is a spectacle. View quote
Neil deGrasse Tyson