Quote

The uniqueness of humans has been claimed on many grounds, but most often because of our tool-making, culture, language, reason and morality. We have them, the other animals don't, and -- so the argument goes -- that's that.

Carl Sagan

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Carl Sagan
Age: 62 †
Born: 1934
Born: November 9
Died: 1996
Died: December 20
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Cosmologist
Naturalist
Non-Fiction Writer
Novelist
Physicist
Planetary Scientist
Science Communicator
Brooklyn
New York
Carl Edward Sagan
Sagan
Carl E. Sagan
Carl E Sagan
C. E. Sagan
C.E. Sagan
C E Sagan
C. Sagan
C Sagan
Sagan C
Sagan C.
Sagan C. E.
Sagan CE
Often
Argument
Reason
Animals
Humans
Tools
Many
Goes
Claimed
Animal
Grounds
Language
Uniqueness
Making
Tool
Culture
Morality

More quotes by Carl Sagan

Image
A stars rich in europium of distant galaxies analyzed through the collective light of a hundred billion constituent stars. Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still. Auguste Comte picked a particularly unfortunate example.
Carl Sagan
Image
What began in deadly competition has helped us to see that global cooperation is the essential precondition for our survival. Travel is broadening. It's time to hit the road again.
Carl Sagan
Image
He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know.
Carl Sagan
Image
Science is not only compatible with spirituality it is a profound source of spirituality.
Carl Sagan
Image
The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.
Carl Sagan
Image
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.
Carl Sagan
Image
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Carl Sagan
Image
Is mankind alone in the universe? Or are there somewhere other intelligent beings looking up into their night sky from very different worlds and asking the same kind of question?
Carl Sagan
Image
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl Sagan
Image
There are lots of ways to communicate what we know, but few ways to communicate what we feel. Music is one way to communicate emotions.
Carl Sagan
Image
In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams!
Carl Sagan
Image
The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.
Carl Sagan
Image
You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.
Carl Sagan
Image
Science arouses a soaring sense of wonder. But so does pseudoscience. Sparse and poor popularizations of science abandon ecological niches that pseudoscience promptly fills. If it were widely understood that claims to knowledge require adequate evidence before they can be accepted, there would be no room for pseudoscience.
Carl Sagan
Image
If we say that God has always been, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always been?
Carl Sagan
Image
To live in the hearts of others is to never die in those we leave behind.
Carl Sagan
Image
Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.
Carl Sagan
Image
Understanding is a kind of ecstasy
Carl Sagan
Image
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
Carl Sagan
Image
Not all birds can fly. What separates the flyers from the walkers is the ability to take off.
Carl Sagan