Quotes from Carl Sagan

Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.

Somos el producto de una larga serie de accidentes biológicos. En la perspectiva cósmica no hay razón alguna para pensar que seamos los primeros, los últimos o los mejores.

Hiçbir uygarl?k, topluluktaki doÄŸumlar?n say?s?n? s?n?rland?rmadan y?ld?zlar aras? yolculuk çabalar?n?n üstesinden gelemez

Si uno crece en una casa donde hay libros, donde alguien le lee, donde padres, hermanos, tías, tíos y primos leen por placer, es natural que aprenda a leer. Si no hay nadie cerca que disfrute leyendo, ¿dónde está la prueba de que vale la pena?

After I give lectures—on almost any subject—I often am asked, "Do you believe in UFOs?" I'm always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not of evidence. I'm almost never asked, "How good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?" I

This looks very much as if the integration of the day's experience into our memory, the forging of new neural links, is either an easier or a more urgent task. As the night wears on and this function is completed, the more affecting dreams, the more bizarre material, the fears and lusts and other powerful emotions of the dream material emerge.

If the structure of the world with all its order and beauty is only an effect of matter left to its own universal laws of motion, and if the blind mechanics of the natural forces can evolve so glorious a product out of chaos, and can attain to such perfection of themselves, then the proof of the Divine Author which is drawn from the spectacle of the beauty of the universe wholly loses its force. Nature is thus sufficient for itself; the Divine government is unnecessary.…

Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires vigilance, dedication, and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us - and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, a world of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who saunters along.

Si la calidad de la educación que uno tiene a su alcance es inadecuada, si a uno le enseñan a memorizar al pie de la letra y no a pensar, si el contenido de lo que se nos da para leer viene de una cultura casi ajena, la alfabetización puede ser un camino lleno de obstáculos.

todo gobierno se degenera cuando se deja solos a los gobernantes, porque éstos -por el mero hecho de gobernar- hacen mal uso de la confianza pública.

Who is really in charge of this planet?

There is an established framework in which any scientist can prove another wrong and make sure everyone else knows about it.

His voice was right. She instantly remembered it. And his smell, his gait, his laugh. The way his beard abraded her cheek. All of it combined to shatter her self-possession. She could feel a massive stone seal being pried open and the first rays of light entering an ancient, almost forgotten tomb.

Just before Iraq torched the Kuwaiti oil wells in January 1991

Los seres humanos sólo pueden sobrevivir matando otros organismos. Pero podemos realizar una compensación ecológica cultivando otros organismos; estimulando la plantación de bosques, impidiendo la matanza al por mayor de organismos como las ballenas y la focas, organismos que pueden tener valor comercial o industrial, como asimismo declarando fuera de la ley la caza injustificada, y haciendo que el medio ambiente de la Tierra sea más agradable para todos sus habitantes.

Presumably no one would argue that the conservative view on the sum of 14 and 27 differs from the liberal view

We all have a tendency to succumb to a state of despair about the destructiveness and shortsightedness of the human species. I've certainly done my share (and on grounds I still consider well-based). But one of the discoveries of my illness is the extraordinary community of goodness to which people in my situation owe their lives.

If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which skepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate.

Mare, despite its Latin meaning, is the Old English word for incubus, and nightmare meant originally the demon that sits on the chests of sleepers, tormenting them with dreams.

In addition, human beings have, in the most recent few tenths of a percent of our existence, invented not only extra-genetic but also extrasomatic knowledge: information stored outside our bodies, of which writing is the most notable example.

Those who avoid decapitation leave more offspring.

Dedicarle tiempo a la física es un lujo —le comentó a Ellie—. Mucha gente podría hacer lo mismo si contara con iguales oportunidades, pero si tenemos que recorrer las calles en busca de comida, no nos quedará tiempo para la física. Mi obligación, por lo tanto, es mejorar las condiciones para los jóvenes científicos de mi país.

EÄŸer s?f?rdan bir elmal? turta yapmak istiyorsan?z, önce evreni yaratmal?s?n?z.

The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, and low self-esteem mesh to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin.