Inspirational Quotes
Words to motivate, inspire, and guide you.
Carl Sagan Quotes
Arms PossessionExcessive ForceMilitary ArsenalNuclear DeterrenceStrategic Balance You probably don't need more weapons than what's required to destroy every city on earth. There's only 2,300 cities. So, the United States, by that criteria, only needs 2,300 nuclear weapons - well, we've got more than 25,000!
DiscernmentGeniusLaughterPerception 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.
DependenceKnowledgeScienceSocietyTechnology We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
ConsequenceEnvironmental AwarenessPlanet PreservationUnderstanding We're in very bad trouble if we don't understand the planet we're trying to save.
CreationFundamentalsUniverse If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
CosmosEvolutionHumanityPotentialScience We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution.
Clear ThinkingConsequenceCritical Thinking The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking - it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.
CreationHuman NatureImaginationMythologyUnderstanding We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed - and they're, of course, based upon what we know, which is ourselves and other animals. So we make up stories about how the world was hatched from a cosmic egg or created after the mating of cosmic deities or by some fiat of a powerful being.
InsignificancePerspectiveVastness Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are as sand, as dust - or less than dust - in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing.
EarthSpace The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be interested in this planet - it's my favorite.
ExistenceHumilityPerspectiveUniverse Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
CapabilityEnthusiasmScience EducationYouth Vs Age I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.
AcceptanceAmbitionPerspectiveReality The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.
Human Origins We start out a million years ago in a small community on some grassy plain; we hunt animals, have children, and develop a rich social, sexual, and intellectual life, but we know almost nothing about our surroundings.
AcceptanceRealityTruthWisdom For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Human Nature Most of the people that I deal with are human. So I've had a lot of experience with that.
CreativityImaginationProgress Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Critical ThinkingDiscernmentInterdisciplinary ApproachTruth Vs Falsehood Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
AstronomyCharacter BuildingHumility It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience.
DiscoveryMythsRealityScience Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But we now have the opportunity to discover, for the first time, the way the universe is in fact constructed as opposed to how we would wish it to be constructed.
Education 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.
CelibacyClergyFanaticismHeredity A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
ConsequenceEducationIgnoranceScience And TechnologyWarning 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.