Quotes from Carl Sagan

Pliny suggested that the ostrich, then newly discovered, was the result of a cross between a giraffe and a gnat. (It would, I suppose, have to be a female giraffe and a male gnat.) In practice there must be many such crosses which have not been attempted because of a certain understandable lack of motivation.

Somos el producto de cinco mil millones de años de evolución biológica lenta, fortuita, y no hay razón alguna para pensar en que se haya detenido tal proceso evolutivo. El hombre es un animal en período de transición. No es el clímax de una creación.

O primeiro pecado da humanidade foi a fé; a primeira virtude foi a dúvida.

The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability.

reject the notion that science is by its nature secretive. Its culture and ethos are, and for very good reason, collective, collaborative, and communicative.

True memories seemed like phantoms, while false memories were so convincing that they replaced reality. GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ, Strange Pilgrims (1992)

Kozmos'u ÅŸöyle bir düÅŸünmek bile garip bir heyecan verir. Ä°nsan?n sesini soluÄŸunu kesen, ensesinden aÅŸa?? ürperti veren, bir boÅŸluÄŸa düÅŸüÅŸün hayal meyal an?msan??? gibi baÅŸ döndürücü bir duygudur bu. Çünkü tüm s?rlar?n en büyüÄŸünün kar??s?nda olman?n bilincindeyizdir.

We are made of starstuff. Some

Then, if we really want our celestial neighbors to know how far we have progressed intelectually, we should have included pictures of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy

The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.

The sleeping style of each organism is exquisitely adapted to the ecology of the animal. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to be quiet on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilized by the implacable arm of sleep.

Briefly illuminated on the wall beside her desk was a quotation from the Parables of Franz Kafka: Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence . . . Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.

In] everyday life, it is very rare that we are confronted with new facts about events of long ago. Our memories are almost never challenged. They can, instead, be frozen in place, no matter how flawed they are, or become a work in continual artistic revision.

We receive as friendly that which agrees with [us], we resist with dislike that which opposes us; whereas the very reverse is required by every dictate of common sense.

The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land. —T. H. Huxley, 1887 The

The Cardiff Giant that most Americans have seen is this copy. Barnum exhibited a fake fake.

What did she expect? It was like trying to visualize a new primary color or a world in which you could recognize several hundred acquaintances individually only by their smells... She could talk about this, but she couldn't experience it.

or warning it of complicity with Nazi Germany—two matters of considerable moral as well as historical import, on which Pope John Paul II, to his credit, has admitted that the Church has erred.

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas...If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.

The emerging picture of the early Solar System does not resemble a stately progression of events designed to form the Earth. Instead, it looks as if our planet was made, and survived, by mere lucky chance,* amid unbelievable violence. Our world does not seem to have been sculpted by a master craftsman. Here too, there is no hint of a Universe made for us.

It's perilous and foolhardy for the average citizen to remain ignorant about global warming, say, or ozone depletion, air pollution, toxic and radioactive wastes, acid rain, topsoil erosion, tropical deforestation, exponential population growth.

Some evidence suggests the left-handers are more likely to have problems with such left-hemisphere functions as reading, writing, speaking and arithmetic; and to be more adept at such right -hemisphere functions as imagination, pattern recognition and general creativity.

If the enemy can think and feel, you might hesitate to kill them. And killing is very important. Better to see them as monsters.

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.