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" We didn't go to the moon to explore or because it was in our DNA or because we're Americans. We went because we were at war and we felt a threat. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

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

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 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

" We explore our environment, more than we are compelled to utter poetry, when we're toddlers. We start doing that later. Before that happens, every child is a scientist. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" I claim that all those who think they can cherry-pick science simply don't understand how science works. That's what I claim. And if they did, they'd be less prone to just assert that somehow scientists are clueless. "

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. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The first trillionaire in the world will be the person who mines asteroids. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Most gravity has no known origin. Is it some exotic particle? Nobody knows. Is dark energy responsible for expansion of the universe? Nobody knows. "

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

" 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

" I'm fascinated by the deaths of stars and the havoc they wreak on their environments. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Those who see the cosmic perspective as a depressing outlook, they really need to reassess how they think about the world. Because when I look up in the universe, I know I'm small but I'm also big. I'm big because I'm connected to the universe, and the universe is connected to me. "

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 universe is almost 14 billion years old, and, wow! Life had no problem starting here on Earth! I think it would be inexcusably egocentric of us to suggest that we're alone in the universe. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" All the traditional STEM fields, the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, are stoked when you dream big in an agency such as NASA. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Do you realize that if you fall into a black hole, you will see the entire future of the Universe unfold in front of you in a matter of moments and you will emerge into another space-time created by the singularity of the black hole you just fell into? "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" There are thousands of asteroids whose orbit in the Solar System crosses that of Earth. And we have a little acronym for them - NEOs: near Earth objects. And our biggest goal is to try to catalogue them, so we know in advance if one is going to put us at risk. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Big ideas, big ambitious projects need to be embedded within culture at a level deeper than the political winds. It needs to be deeper than the economic fluctuations that could turn people against an expensive project because they're on an unemployment line and can't feed their families. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" When a president promises something beyond his years in office, he is fundamentally unaccountable. It is not his budget that must finish the job. Another president inherits the problem, and it becomes a ball too easily dropped, a plan too easily abandoned, a dream too readily deferred. "

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

" If your ego starts out, 'I am important, I am big, I am special,' you're in for some disappointments when you look around at what we've discovered about the universe. No, you're not big. No, you're not. You're small in time and in space. And you have this frail vessel called the human body that's limited on Earth. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Physics is the only profession in which prophecy is not only accurate but routine. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" When you innovate, you create new industries that then boost your economy. And when you create new industries and that becomes part of your culture, your jobs can't go overseas because no one else has figured out how to do it yet. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Everyone should have their mind blown once a day. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" The only way you can invent tomorrow is if you break out of the enclosure that the school system has provided for you by the exams written by people who are trained in another generation. "

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

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

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" 'Cosmos' wouldn't deserve its place in primetime evening network television were it not a landscape on which compelling stories were told. People, when they watch TV in the evening, want to see stories, and science simply tells the best stories. "

Neil deGrasse Tyson

" Space in general gave us GPS - that's not specifically NASA, but it's investments in space. "

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