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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 >>

Humans everywhere share the same goals when the context is large enough. And the study of the Cosmos provides the largest possible context … . If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another … . If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.

— Carl Sagan

Cosmos

I’d like the [Cosmos] series to be so visually stimulating that somebody who isn’t even interested in the concepts will just watch for the effects. And I’d like people who are prepared to do some thinking to be really stimulated.

— Carl Sagan

Quoted by Dennis Meredith, in 'Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Connection and Extraterrestrial Life-Wish', Science Digest (Jun 1979), 85, 38. Reproduced in Carl Sagan and Tom Head, Conversations With Sagan (2006), 55.

Its [science’s] goal is to find out how the world works, to seek what regularities there may be, to penetrate to the connections of things—from subatomic particles, which may be the constituents of all matter, to living organisms, the human social community, and thence to the cosmos as a whole.

— Carl Sagan

Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1979, 1986), 15.

Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves, but also to the cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

— Carl Sagan

…...

The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.

— Carl Sagan

Opening statement from 'The Shores of the Cosmic Ocean', episode 1, TV series, Cosmos (1980). Also in Cosmos (1980, 1985), 4.

Science quotes on: | Cosmos (64) | Will (2350)

The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home.

— Carl Sagan

Cosmos (1981), 4.

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

— Carl Sagan

Cosmos (1985), 275.

We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

— Carl Sagan

From Carl Sagan's narration on a promotional video for the television series Cosmos.

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

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Carl Sagan quote: The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.

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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

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