Quotes from Carl Sagan

A idéia de que Deus é um gigante barbudo de pele branca sentado no céu é ridícula. Mas se, com esse conceito, você se referir a um conjunto de leis físicas que regem o Universo, então claramente existe um Deus. Só que Ele é emocionalmente frustrante: afinal, não faz muito sentido rezar para a lei da gravidade!

Saber muito não lhe torna inteligente. A inteligência se traduz na forma que você recolhe, julga, maneja e, sobretudo, onde e como aplica esta informação.

A scientific colleague tells me about a recent trip to the New Guinea highlands where she visited a stone age culture hardly contacted by Western civilization. They were ignorant of wristwatches, soft drinks, and frozen food. But they knew about Apollo 11. They knew that humans had walked on the Moon. They knew the names of Armstrong and Aldrin and Collins. They wanted to know who was visiting the Moon these days.

Para criaturas pequenas como nós, a vastidão só é suportável por meio do amor.

Diante da vastidão do tempo e da imensidão do universo, é um imenso prazer para mim dividir um planeta e uma época com você.

Hemos preparado una civilización global en la cual la mayoría de los elementos cruciales dependen profundamente de la ciencia y la tecnología. También hemos dispuesto las cosas de tal forma que casi nadie comprende la ciencia y la tecnología. Esto es la receta para el desastre. Puede que podamos seguir así por un tiempo, pero tarde o temprano esta mezcla explosiva de ignorancia y poder nos explotará en la cara.

We are the way for the universe to know itself.

DNA'm?zdaki karbon, diÅŸlerimizdeki kalsiyum, kan?m?zdaki demir, içtiÄŸimiz sudaki oksijen kendi içine çökmüÅŸ bir y?ld?zdan yap?lm??t?r. Bu da biziy?ld?z tozu yapar.

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time — proof that humans can work magic.

En cierto modo, la ciencia puede ser definida como el pensamiento paranoide aplicado a la naturaleza. En efecto, andamos a la búsqueda de conspiraciones naturales, de nexos entre hechos aparentemente dispares.

I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me in trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.

every time we excercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.

Scientists often say My position is mistaken. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

The total number of such worlds are, as I said, something of the order of a trillion, or 10^12, a one followed by twelve zeros, of which Earth represents just one, all in the family of the Sun. And our star, of course, is one of a vast multitude.

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.

Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world.

It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience.

Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

An organism at war with itself is doomed.

The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be interested in this planet - it's my favorite.

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. The bamboozle has captured us. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back

Evidence that contradicts the ruling belief system is held to extraordinary standards, while evidence that entrenches it is uncritically accepted.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.