"Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, and to steer a safe course." -Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

"The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves - without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster." -Carl Sagan

"Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe which dwarfs -- in time, in space, and in potential -- the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors." -Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

"If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves." - Carl Sagan, Pale blue dot

"Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom." -Carl Sagan

"If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us." - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

We all have a thirst for wonder. It's a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What I'm saying is, you don't have to make stories up, you don't have to exaggerate. There's wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature's a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe.

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves." -Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

"My view is that if there is no evidence for it, then forget about it. An agnostic is somebody who doesn’t believe in something until there is evidence for it, so I’m agnostic." - Carl Sagan

"There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question." - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

"Science and technology are the key to our civilization." - Carl Sagan

"I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves." - Carl Sagan

“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute..." ― John F. Kennedy

Carl Sagan Cosmos- The backbone of the night.

"Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos

"The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us-there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries." -Carl Sagan,Cosmos

"You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other." - Carl Sagan

Grown-up's have beaten the excitement of science out of kids says Carl Sagan.

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand." - Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan on Vedic Hindu Cosmology.

Carl Sagan talks about weapons, climate, and the risks of technology.

"But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine." - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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… Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space." - Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan talks about radio waves.

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1000 years. To read is to voyage through time."   - Carl Sagan.

Ask courageous questions. Do not be satisfied with superficial answers. Be open to wonder and at the same time subject all claims to knowledge, without exception, to critical scrutiny. Be aware of human fallibility. Cherish your species and your planet. - Carl Sagan.

"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." - Carl Sagan.

Carl Sagan on science, astrology, and mainstream media in 1987. "Short-term advantages for the network, long-term disaster for the country."

Imagination will often carry us to the worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.

We're not separate from the cosmos- we're its outcome. Every choice we make, every idea we create, is the universe expressing itself through us. Small actions, big meaning—our lives are a chance to let the cosmos shine through.” - Carl Sagan- cosmos- stars- We are their children

Professor Hans Bethe explains superconductivity in his lecture titled " My Relation To Early Quantum Mechanics" at MIT November 21, 1977.

“Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world.” ― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

If the price of God’s mysterious plan is the lives of innocent children, then perhaps it is a plan not worth worshiping.

But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine. ― Carl Sagan

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent. - Isaac Asimov

Professor Brian Greene explains Einstein's theory of gravity.

So many galaxies, so many stars - yet only one Carl Sagan. Let us do better, humanity: we need more voices of reason, more proponents of awe, more prophets of wonder, and more reasons to feel gratitude for the magnificence of our existence.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him. - Galileo Galilei

"Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.” ― Carl Sagan

The danger is not so much that machines may become like humans, but that humans may forget what it means to be humane.

When Ted Turner asked Carl Sagan if he was a socialist, Sagan gave the answer America keeps failing to learn.