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Grab something off the shelf that's on the spaceship-an ashtray, it doesn't matter what. Because I can tell you, if they flew here from another galaxy, no matter what you've pulled off the shelf, it'll be unlike anything we have on Earth.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Neil deGrasse Tyson
Age: 65
Born: 1958
Born: October 5
Actor
Astronomer
Astrophysicist
Cosmologist
Non-Fiction Writer
Philosopher
Physicist
Science Communicator
Science Writer
Teacher
Trekkie
The Bronx
New York City
Neil Tyson
Anything
Shelves
Ashtray
Matter
Pulled
Ashtrays
Something
Unlike
Spaceship
Aliens
Spaceships
Tell
Shelf
Doesn
Grab
Another
Galaxy
Earth
Flew

More quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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The greatest teachers are the ones that turn a B student into an A student, or a failing student into a B student.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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When I would lose matches, I fully respected the person who beat me, because they beat me. I can't blame anybody.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I would say - and paint doesn't peel unless it's acrylic paint, so maybe it is acrylic paint that they're using, not oil paint. So let me say yes, it would be acrylic house paint, which, when it dries, peels very nicely. So let's go with that.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Perhaps these ancient observatories like Stonehenge perennially impress modern people because modern people have no idea how the Sun, Moon, or stars move. We are too busy watching evening television to care what's going on in the sky.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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It's quite literally true that we are star dust, in the highest exalted way one can use that phrase. ...I bask in the majesty of the cosmos. I use words, compose sentences that sound like the sentences I hear out of people that had revelation of Jesus, who go on their pilgrimages to Mecca.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I can't think that leaving Earth once is enough.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Many people feel small because they're small and the universe is big, but I feel big.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I simply go with what works. And what works is the healthy skepticism embodied in the scientific method. Believe me, if the Bible had ever been shown to be a rich source of scientific answers and enlightenment, we would be mining it daily for cosmic discovery.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Earth ever suffers a runaway greenhouse effect (like what has happened on Venus), then our atmosphere would trap excess amounts of solar energy, the air temperature would rise, and the oceans would swiftly evaporate into the atmosphere as they sustained a rolling boil. This would be bad.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I don't like trying to influence politicians, who are themselves representative of huge numbers of people. As an educator, I'd rather enlighten the people and educate the people and let they be the ones who put the pressure on their elected officials.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Neptune were analogized with a Chevy Impala in mass, then how big is pluto compared to that? Pluto would be a matchbox car sitting on the curb.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I know of no time in human history where ignorance was better than knowledge.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Perhaps we’ve never been visited by aliens because they have looked upon earth and decided there’s no sign of intelligent life.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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There are countless space activities that would be no less exciting than the moon missions were, I have no doubt. The search for life on Mars, for example.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I as an astrophysicist, see the universe, feel the universe, smell the universe every day. Every day. And for people to say, I'm cool, I'm right here, it's all I need.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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The universe's destiny has very little to do with the near-term destiny of Earth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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I can tell you that in my modern life I enjoy language. I enjoy words, their meaning, what they sound like to the ear, what they sound like to the listener. I strive to write the perfect sentence in all that I do, and when I write [the] perfect sentence I know it. If I had a second life I'd be a librettist for Broadway musicals.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Countless women are alive today because of ideas stimulated by a design flaw in the Hubble Space Telescope.
Neil deGrasse Tyson