Sagan Quotes

“When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . . That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . . That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . . That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . . The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.”
― Ann Druyan

“Interviewer: Didn't Sagan want to believe?
Druyan: he didn't want to believe. he wanted to know.”
― Ann Druyan

“Except for hydrogen, all the atoms that make each of us up—the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the carbon in our brains—were manufactured in red giant stars thousands of light-years away in space and billions of years ago in time. We are, as I like to say, starstuff.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“More recently, books, especially paperbacks, have been printed in massive and inexpensive editions. For the price of a modest meal you can ponder the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, the origin of species, the interpretation of dreams, the nature of things. Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little more to eat next winter but what will we plant so we and our children will have enough to get through the winters to come?”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“Life did not take over the world by combat,
but by networking.”
― Lynn Margulis, Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution

“I can't think of a single instance where I've ever been looked at like he's looking at me right now.”
― Colleen Hoover, Without Merit

“And if the world does not in all respects correspond to our wishes, is this the fault of science, or of those who would impose their wishes on the world?”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“It was difficult to hold Broca's brain without wondering whether in some sense Broca was still in there—his wit, his skeptical mien, his abrupt gesticulations when he talked, his quiet and sentimental moments.”
― Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

“There is a place with four suns in the sky-red, white, blue, and yellow; two of them are so close together that they touch, and star-stuff flows between them. I know of a world with a million moons. I know of a sun the size of the Earth-and made of diamond....The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming part of it”
― Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective

“Things had been falling down since the beginning of time.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No, no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics, Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“Una científica compañera mía me contaba un reciente viaje que realizó a la meseta de Nueva Guinea, donde visitó una tribu todavía en la edad de piedra que apenas había tenido contactos con la civilización. Ignoraban lo que son los relojes de pulsera, las bebidas refrescantes y los alimentos congelados. Pero conocían el Apolo 11. Sabían que los humanos han pisado la Luna.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

“While there are deeper regularities in the Universe than the simple circumstances we generally describe as orderly, all that order, simple and complex, seems to derive from laws of Nature established at the Big Bang (or earlier), rather than as a consequence of belated intervention by an imperfect deity. “God is to be found in the details” is the famous dictum of the German scholar Aby Warburg. But, amid much elegance and precision, the details of life and the Universe also exhibit haphazard, jury-rigged arrangements and much poor planning. What shall we make of this: an edifice abandoned early in construction by the architect? The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed. Sometimes it seems a very slender hope. The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life’s meaning. We long for a Parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.
--Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space”
― Sagan, Carl; Druyan, Ann

“Le rire est tout ce que l'on voudrait être, ou plus exactement, tout ce que l'on voudrait que chacun de nos sentiments soit: accompli, intouchable, instinctif et résolu.”
― Françoise Sagan, La Petite Robe Noire Et Autres Textes

“Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours to civilize civilization and Christianize Christendom?”
― Herman Melville, White-Jacket or The World in a Man-of-War

“C'était un bel andante de Mozart, évoquant comme toujours l'aube, la mort, un certain sourire.”
― Françoise Sagan, A Certain Smile

“Je me surpris dans la glace et je me vis sourire. Je ne m'empêchai pas de sourire, je ne pouvais pas. A nouveau, je le savais, j'étais seule. J'eus envie de me dire ce mot à moi-même. Seule. Seule. Mais enfin, quoi? J'étais une femme qui avait aimé un homme. C'était une histoire simple ; il n'y avait pas de quoi faire des grimaces.”
― Françoise Sagan, A Certain Smile