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" If a scientist is not befuddled by what they're looking at, then they're not a research scientist. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

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" We have bred multiple generations of people who have not experienced knowing where you are the moment a news story broke, with that news story being great and grand and something that elevates society instead of diminishes it. "

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" I was born the same week NASA was founded, so we're the same age and feel some of the same pains, joys, and frustrations. "

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" I'm often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science? And I have only one bit of advice. Get out of their way. Kids are born curious. Period. "

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" If Mars formed life, then life on Earth could have been seeded by life on Mars, making every life form on Earth descended from Martians. "

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" Once you have an innovation culture, even those who are not scientists or engineers - poets, actors, journalists - they, as communities, embrace the meaning of what it is to be scientifically literate. They embrace the concept of an innovation culture. They vote in ways that promote it. They don't fight science and they don't fight technology. "

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" Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening. "

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" Typically, when you look for role models, you want someone who has your interests and came from the same background. Well, look how restricting that is. What people should do is take role models a la carte. If there's someone whose character you appreciated, you respect that trait. "

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" If God is the mystery of the universe, these mysteries, we're tackling these mysteries one by one. If you're going to stay religious at the end of the conversation, God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The only driver stronger than an economic argument to do something is the war argument, the I-don't-want-to-die argument. "

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" All of the full moons for the entire year are special in that they have particular names. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" You can't come away with this cosmic perspective thinking that you are better than others and want to fight. That's why you'll never have astrophysicists leading nations into war. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I have a personal philosophy in life: If somebody else can do something that I'm doing, they should do it. And what I want to do is find things that would represent a unique contribution to the world - the contribution that only I, and my portfolio of talents, can make happen. Those are my priorities in life. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Asteroids have us in our sight. The dinosaurs didn't have a space program, so they're not here to talk about this problem. We are, and we have the power to do something about it. I don't want to be the embarrassment of the galaxy, to have had the power to deflect an asteroid, and then not, and end up going extinct. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a total solar eclipse is a spectacle. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" In the animal kingdom, one of the keys to survival is to outwit your enemies. And when you're surrounded by carnivores, one of the best strategies is to fade into the background and disappear. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I lose sleep at night wondering whether we are intelligent enough to figure out the universe. I don't know. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" You have people who believe they are scientifically literate but, in fact, are not. And I don't mind if you're not scientifically literate, but just admit that to yourself, so that you'll know, and perhaps you can take a first step to try to eradicate that. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Science literacy is the artery through which the solutions of tomorrow's problems flow. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I've spent quality time in the aerospace community, with my service on two presidential commissions, but at heart, I'm an academic. Being an academic means I don't wield power over person, place or thing. I don't command armies; I don't lead labor unions. All I have is the power of thought. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" If we find life out there, and it's not us, we will deem it not intelligent. But what may be equally as likely is that we find life that's vastly more intelligent than we are. If that's the case, we are putty in their hands. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we're still at the mercy of nature. "

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" Kids should be allowed to break stuff more often. That's a consequence of exploration. Exploration is what you do when you don't know what you're doing. That's what scientists do every day. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.' "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Being at the top of your game intellectually, philosophically, politically, is not a forever thing. "

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" There are a lot of things you can do in space, and space essentially is unlimited resources. We are climbing over ourselves here looking for the next source of energy. The universe has an unlimited source of energy. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Pluto's orbit is so elongated that it crosses the orbit of another planet. Now that's... you've got no business doing that if you want to call yourself a planet. Come on, now! There's something especially transgressive about that. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The need to create a new taxonomy that isn't just applying to our own solar system will become so evident and apparent that something will come out of it. I'm sure of it, even if it's not tomorrow. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" You can't train kids in a world where adults have no concept of what science literacy is. The adults are gonna squash the creativity that would manifest itself, because they're clueless about what it and why it matters. But science can always benefit from the more brains there are that are thinking about it - but that's true for any field. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson