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" 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
Night
Know
I Can
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" Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works. "
Carl Sagan
How
Minds
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" 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
Columbus
Brothers
Clown
" The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition. "
Carl Sagan
Ambition
Perfect
Universe
" Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. "
Carl Sagan
Deep
Which
Religion
" The professed function of the nuclear weapons on each side is to prevent the other side from using their nuclear weapons. If that's all it is, then we've gotta as: how many nuclear weapons do you need to do that? "
Carl Sagan
Nuclear Weapons
You
Side
" 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
Stars
Universe
Science
" 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
Far
Universe
Better
" 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. "
Carl Sagan
Animals
Hunger
Know
" Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. "
Carl Sagan
Light
Great
Dark
" Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. "
Carl Sagan
Thinking
Way
Science
" In our obscurity - in all this vastness - there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. "
Carl Sagan
Will
Up
Save
" For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. "
Carl Sagan
Only
Small
Through
" It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience. "
Carl Sagan
Add
Said
Experience
" It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. "
Carl Sagan
Space
Better
Delusion
" We're in very bad trouble if we don't understand the planet we're trying to save. "
Carl Sagan
Understand
Trouble
Bad
" We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. "
Carl Sagan
Evolution
Atoms
Years
" We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. "
Carl Sagan
Technology
Live
Society
" 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! "
Carl Sagan
Destroy
Need
You
" If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. "
Carl Sagan
You
Pie
Wish
" 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
Yourself
You
Light
" 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. "
Carl Sagan
Small
Children
Community
" Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. "
Carl Sagan
Go
Will
Never
" Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception. "
Carl Sagan
Exception
Rule
Extinction
" 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
Science
Education
School
" Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. "
Carl Sagan
Evidence
Absence
" I've written a number of books that have to do with the evolution of humans, human intelligence, human emotions. "
Carl Sagan
Human
Intelligence
Evolution
" Most of the people that I deal with are human. So I've had a lot of experience with that. "
Carl Sagan
Deal
Experience
Most
" No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it's this world or nothing. That's a very powerful perception. "
Carl Sagan
World
Home
Solar
" We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. "
Carl Sagan
Science
Most
Technology
" 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
Value
American
Technology