Carl Sagan

“One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millenia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your...”

“But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - are easily misled. He also stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for...”

“Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost...”

“Every now and then, I'm lucky enough to teach a kindergarten or first-grade class. Many of these children are natural-born scientists - although heavy on the wonder side, and light on skepti...”

“If you had walked through the pleasant Tuscan countryside in the 1890's, you might have come upon a somewhat long-haired teenage high school dropout on the road to Pavia. His teachers in Ger...”

“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

“There is a wide, yawning black infinity. In every direction, the extension is endless; the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, b...”

“We start out a million years ago in a small community on some grassy plain; we hunt animals, have children, and develop a rich social, sexual, and intellectual life, but we know almost nothi...”

“I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.”

“Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But...”

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

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

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.”

“We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.”

“We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this co...”

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

“We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution.”

“Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

“We're in very bad trouble if we don't understand the planet we're trying to save.”

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.”