Quotes by Carl Sagan

About Carl Sagan:

Carl Edward Sagan is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages that were sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.

Carl Sagan

[ :] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion, why do you not believe in materialistic science, which has an unparalleled record of fulfilled prophecy? Consider, for example, eclipses.

Carl Sagan

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

Carl Sagan

The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.

Carl Sagan

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Carl Sagan

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across th...

Carl Sagan

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of magic.

Carl Sagan

If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.

Carl Sagan

All her life, dreams had been her friends. Her dreams were unusually detailed, well-structured, colorful.

Carl Sagan

Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astounding universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.

Carl Sagan

In that case, on behalf of Earthlife, I urge that, with full knowledge of our limitations, we vastly increase our knowledge of the Solar System and then begin to settle other worlds.

Carl Sagan

So beautiful! I had no idea! I had no idea...

Carl Sagan

In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.

Carl Sagan

Could we possible manage the next phase of human history without first dealing with this penchant for dehumanizing the adversary?

Carl Sagan

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Carl Sagan

I'm frequently asked, "Do you believe there's extraterrestrial intelligence?" I give the standard arguments- there are a lot of places out there, the molecules of life are everywhere, I use the word billions, and so on. Then I say it would be astonis...

Carl Sagan

Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value the may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder.

Carl Sagan

The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.

Carl Sagan

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

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God,' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God....

Carl Sagan

Some information is classified legitimately; as with military hardware, secrecy sometimes really is in the national interest. Further, military, political, and intelligence communities tend to value secrecy for its own sake. It's a way of silencing c...

Carl Sagan

Author Bio

  • NameCarl Sagan
  • DescriptionAmerican astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
  • BornNovember 9, 1934
  • DiedDecember 20, 1996
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionCosmologist; Astrophysicist; Novelist; Planetary Scientist; Space Scientist; Popularizer Of Science; Science Fiction Writer; Science Writer
  • Awards; Pulitzer Prize For General Non-Fiction; Humanist Of The Year