Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz

Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index S > Carl Sagan Quotes > Argument

Carl Sagan

(9 Nov 1934 - 20 Dec 1996)

American astronomer, exobiologist and writer remembered for popularizing astronomy and science, especially with his public television series Cosmos. Its accompanying book spent seventy weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He was an adviser to NASA for the Mariner, Voyager, and Viking unmanned space missions.

Short biography of Carl Sagan >>

Carl Sagan quote: [Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-c

(source)

[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true.

— Carl Sagan

Cosmos (1985), 277.

A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.

— Carl Sagan

Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millenium (1998), 190.

In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. It’s very rare that a senator, say, replies, “That’s a good argument. I will now change my political affiliation.”

— Carl Sagan

From keynote address at CSICOP conference, Pasadena, California (3 Apr 1987). Printed in 'The Burden of Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer (1987), 12, No. 1. Collected in Kendrick Frazier (ed.), The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal (1991), 5.

One of the great commandments of science is, 'Mistrust arguments from authority'. (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of course do not always follow this commandment.)

— Carl Sagan

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1996), 31.

The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.

— Carl Sagan

The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1997), 429.

Carl Sagan quote: If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

(source)

Carl Sagan quote: The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were ma

(source)

Carl Sagan quote Advances in medicine and agriculture

click for more about this quote and a larger picture • 500px • 800px

A bean farmer checks her crop in Congo. Photo by Neil Palmer (CIAT). CC2.0 (source)

See also:

9 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Sagan's birth.
Carl Sagan - context of quote “Advances in medicine and agriculture” - Medium image (500 x 250 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote “Advances in medicine and agriculture” - Large image (800 x 400 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote A Subject Called Chemistry - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote A Subject Called Chemistry - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos, by William Poundstone. - book suggestion.
Booklist for Carl Sagan.

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan

Quotations by: • Albert Einstein • Isaac Newton • Lord Kelvin • Charles Darwin • Srinivasa Ramanujan • Carl Sagan • Florence Nightingale • Thomas Edison • Aristotle • Marie Curie • Benjamin Franklin • Winston Churchill • Galileo Galilei • Sigmund Freud • Robert Bunsen • Louis Pasteur • Theodore Roosevelt • Abraham Lincoln • Ronald Reagan • Leonardo DaVinci • Michio Kaku • Karl Popper • Johann Goethe • Robert Oppenheimer • Charles Kettering ... (more people)

Quotations about: • Atomic Bomb • Biology • Chemistry • Deforestation • Engineering • Anatomy • Astronomy • Bacteria • Biochemistry • Botany • Conservation • Dinosaur • Environment • Fractal • Genetics • Geology • History of Science • Invention • Jupiter • Knowledge • Love • Mathematics • Measurement • Medicine • Natural Resource • Organic Chemistry • Physics • Physician • Quantum Theory • Research • Science and Art • Teacher • Technology • Universe • Volcano • Virus • Wind Power • Women Scientists • X-Rays • Youth • Zoology ... (more topics)

Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages:

Visit our Science and Scientist Quotations index for more Science Quotes from archaeologists, biologists, chemists, geologists, inventors and inventions, mathematicians, physicists, pioneers in medicine, science events and technology.

Names index: | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Categories index: | 1 | 2 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |