Last Updated on September 6, 2024
Around the 70’s and 80’s, the world was still in the process of discovering a lot of the things we now know to be true. It was a completely different era, a time when a lot of things still seemed impossible.
This is why the astronomer Carl Sagan made such a huge impact in the lives of those who longed for a deeper understanding of life and the universe. He saw the universe in ways we never saw before, opening up people’s minds to a lot of possibilities far from what they knew back then.
To give you a clear glimpse of how Carl Sagan’s mind worked, here are a few of his quotes that ultimately leads to the awakening of anyone’s yearning to understand the world and the universe better.
Carl Sagan Quotes about the Cosmos
“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human
disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies,
you will not find another.” – Carl Sagan
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood,
the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars.
We are made of star-stuff.” – Carl Sagan
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” – Carl Sagan
“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps
someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan
“For me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist
in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” – Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and
accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything
in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility
of all the human beings involved?” – Carl Sagan
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan
“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” – Carl Sagan
“It pays to keep an mind, but not so open your brain falls out.” – Carl Sagan
“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” – Carl Sagan
“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.” – Carl Sagan
“We judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our
answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.” – Carl Sagan
“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at
are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the clown.” – Carl Sagan
“The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” – Carl Sagan
“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 emptiness bearable is each other.” – Carl Sagan
“Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.” – Carl Sagan
“We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” – Carl Sagan
“The cosmos is within us. We are mad of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” – Carl Sagan
“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches the other with five.” – Carl Sagan
“I don’t want to believe. I want to know.” – Carl Sagan
“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be
counter-intuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. it may not be consonant with what
we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.” – Carl Sagan
“I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the likely we are to assume
from the outside, the less likely we are to solve our problems ourselves.” – Carl Sagan
“We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers.” – Carl Sagan
“It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned
English – up to fifty words used in correct context – no human being has been
reported to have learned Dolphinese.” – Carl Sagan
“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that into it, but the way those atoms are put together.” – Carl Sagan
“The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.” – Carl Sagan
“The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.” – Carl Sagan
