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" People who are scientists today are scientists in spite of the system, typically, not because of it. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

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" We live on this speck called Earth - think about what you might do, today or tomorrow - and make the most of it. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I study the universe. It's the second oldest profession. People have been looking up for a long time. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Fortunately, there's another handy driver that has manifested itself throughout the history of cultures. The urge to want to gain wealth. That is almost as potent a driver as the urge to maintain your security. And that is how I view NASA going forward - as an investment in our economy. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" If you think of feelings you have when you are awed by something - for example, knowing that elements in your body trace to exploded stars - I call that a spiritual reaction, speaking of awe and majesty, where words fail you. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Innovations in science and technology are the engines of the 21st-century economy; if you care about the wealth and health of your nation tomorrow, then you'd better rethink how you allocate taxes to fund science. The federal budget needs to recognize this. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Kids are born curious about the world. What adults primarily do in the presence of kids is unwittingly thwart the curiosity of children. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" What are we promoting in society? Well-behaved automatons that spew back what they learned in a book. That's not science. You can get a parrot to do that. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Not enough people in this world, I think, carry a cosmic perspective with them. It could be life-changing. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The history of exploration across nations and across time is not one where nations said, 'Let's explore because it's fun.' It was, 'Let's explore so that we can claim lands for our country, so that we can open up new trade routes; let's explore so we can become more powerful.' "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" 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

" I don't care what town you're born in, what city, what country. If you're a child, you are curious about your environment. You're overturning rocks. You're plucking leaves off of trees and petals off of flowers, looking inside, and you're doing things that create disorder in the lives of the adults around you. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" It's always interesting just to see how the human mind is relating to the natural universe, and what we try to make of it just so we can believe we understand what's going on. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Venus has a runaway greenhouse effect. I kind of want to know what happened there because we're twirling knobs here on Earth without knowing the consequences of it. Mars once had running water. It's bone dry today. Something bad happened there as well. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" For me, the most fascinating interface is Twitter. I have odd cosmic thoughts every day and I realized I could hold them to myself or share them with people who might be interested. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I'm not as famous as Stephen Hawking, but certainly in the U.S., I have a very high profile for a scientist. It is an awesome responsibility, one that I don't shoulder lightly. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" You have not fully expressed your power as a voter until you have scientific literacy in topics that matter for future political issues. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Although I'm not actually embarrassed by this, I tend not to read books that have awesome movies made from them, regardless of how well or badly the movie represented the actual written story. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" No one wants to die, and no one wants to die poor. These are the two fundamental truths that transcend culture, they transcend politics, they transcend economic cycles. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I'm perennially intrigued how people who lead largely evidence-based lives can, in a belief-based part of their mind, be certain that an invisible, divine entity created an entire universe just for us, or that the government is stockpiling space aliens in a secret desert location. "

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

" Pretty much every plant and animal alive today is the result of eons of natural cross-breeding. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I said that if an alien came to visit, I'd be embarrassed to tell them that we fight wars to pull fossil fuels out of the ground to run our transportation. They'd be like, 'What?' "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I'm constantly claimed by atheists. I find this intriguing. In fact, on my Wiki page - I didn't create the Wiki page, others did, and I'm flattered that people cared enough about my life to assemble it - and it said, 'Neil deGrasse is an atheist.' "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Any time scientists disagree, it's because we have insufficient data. Then we can agree on what kind of data to get; we get the data; and the data solves the problem. Either I'm right, or you're right, or we're both wrong. And we move on. That kind of conflict resolution does not exist in politics or religion. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" It's actually the minority of religious people who rejects science or feel threatened by it or want to sort of undo or restrict the... where science can go. The rest, you know, are just fine with science. And it has been that way ever since the beginning. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" When Kennedy said, 'Let's go to the moon,' we didn't yet have a vehicle that wouldn't kill you on launch. He said we'll land a man on the moon in eight years and bring him back. That was an audacious goal to put forth in front of the American people. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The history of exploration has never been driven by exploration. But Columbus himself was a discoverer. So was Magellan. But the people who wrote checks were not. They had other motivations. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition - We're creating our own definition and saying, 'We are intelligent!' "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The idea that science is just some luxury that you'll get around to if you can afford it is regressive to any future a country might dream for itself. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Mars once was wet and fertile. It's now bone dry. Something bad happened on Mars. I want to know what happened on Mars so that we may prevent it from happening here on Earth. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson