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" 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
Science
Get
Book
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" For most of human civilization, the pace of innovation has been so slow that a generation might pass before a discovery would influence your life, culture or the conduct of nations. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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" When an industry matures, it means it's not advancing, and of course the jobs go overseas. That's the obligation of the multi-national corporation: to put the factory where it can make the widget as cheap as possible. Don't get angry when a corporation does that; we've all bought into this concept. We live in a capitalistic society. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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" You will never find scientists leading armies into battle. You just won't. Especially not astrophysicists - we see the biggest picture there is. We understand how small we are in the cosmos. We understand how fragile and temporary our existence is here on Earth. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Earth
Battle
You
" The problem is that many people operate on the assumption that NASA should go to Congress every year with hat in hand and justify it every year. Well, I see it as the greatest economic driver that there ever was. Economic drivers don't need justification. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Problem
Go
People
" I was transformed by picking up a pair of binoculars and looking up, and that's hard to do for a city kid because when you look up you just see buildings - and really, your first thought is to look in people's windows. So to look out of the space - out of living space - and look up to the sky, binoculars go far, literally and figuratively. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
People
Look
Space
" As an educator, I try to get people to be fundamentally curious and to question ideas that they might have or that are shared by others. In that state of mind, they have earned a kind of inoculation against the fuzzy thinking of these weird ideas floating around out there. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
People
Ideas
Mind
" It's part of our pop culture to give animals human personalities and talents. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Culture
Animals
Give
" Physics is the only profession in which prophecy is not only accurate but routine. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Only
Physics
Prophecy
" 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
Need
Political
People
" 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
Two
Poor
Culture
" It's the great tragedy - people employed in ways that don't fully tap everything they do best in life. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Life
People
Tragedy
" 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
Empathy
World
Reading
" Carl Sagan spoke fluently between biology and geology and astrophysics and physics. If you move fluently across those boundaries, you realize that science is everywhere; science is not something you can step around or sweep under the rug. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Biology
Step
Science
" 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
Dream
Future
Science
" I don't know anybody who said, 'I love that teacher, he or she gave a really good homework set,' or 'Boy, that was the best class I ever took because those exams were awesome.' That's not what people want to talk about. It's not what influences people in one profession or another. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Know
Love
People
" Scientists in different disciplines don't speak the same language. They publish in different journals. It's like the United Nations: You come together, but no one speaks the same language, so you need some translators. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Together
Speak
Need
" The very nature of science is discoveries, and the best of those discoveries are the ones you don't expect. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science
You
Very
" The first trillionaire in the world will be the person who mines asteroids. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Who
Mines
Person
" In all civilizations we've studied, all cultures that we know of across the Earth and across time have invested some kind of attempt to understanding where where, where they come from, and where they are going. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Earth
Time
Kind
" I'm baffled all the time. We don't know what's driving 96% of the universe. Everybody you know and love and heard of and think about and see in the night sky through a telescope: four percent of the universe. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Driving
Night
Time
" Many academicians don't even own a television, much less watch one. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Television
Even
Less
" If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Me
Time
Black
" Private enterprise in the history of civilization has never led large, expensive, dangerous projects with unknown risks. That has never happened because when you combine all these factors, you cannot create a capital market valuation of that activity. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Risks
You
Dangerous
" There is always a place I can take someone's curiosity and land where they end up enlightened when we're done. That's my challenge as an educator. No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don't ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
People
End
Curiosity
" I get enormous satisfaction from knowing I'm doing something for society. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Doing
Knowing
Satisfaction
" If you get asteroids about a kilometer in size, those are large enough and carry enough energy into our system to disrupt transportation, communication, the food chains, and that can be a really bad day on Earth. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Energy
Communication
Food
" 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
Community
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" 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
Disappear
Animal
Best
" One of the things that fascinates me most is when people are so charmed by the universe that it becomes part of their artistic output. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Universe
People
Part
" NASA has spin-offs, and it's a huge and very impressive list, including accurate and affordable LASIK eye surgery. "
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Surgery
NASA
List