Carl Sagan Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Carl Sagan quotes, Carl Sagan sayings, and Carl Sagan proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. Carl Sagan
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Carl Sagan
Skepticism enables us to distinguish fancy from fact, to test our speculations. Carl Sagan
Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs. Carl Sagan
Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children. Carl Sagan
If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. Carl Sagan
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Carl Sagan
People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs. Carl Sagan
It's hard to kill a creature once it lets you see its consciousness. Carl Sagan
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. Carl Sagan
UFOs: The reliable cases are uninteresting and in the interesting cases are unreliable. Carl Sagan
You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary knowledge of human fallibility. Carl Sagan
It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English — up to 50 words used in correct context — no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese. Carl Sagan
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Carl Sagan
The passion to explore is at the heart of being human. Carl Sagan
Extraordinary observations require extraordinary evidence to make them believable. Carl Sagan
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are. Carl Sagan
The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space. Carl Sagan
If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what until now has been described as 'human rights'? How smart does a chimp have to be before killing him constitutes murder? Carl Sagan
Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars. Carl Sagan
The beach reminds us of space. Fine sand grains, all more or less uniform in size, have been produced from the larger rocks through ages of jostling and rubbing, abrasion and erosion, again driven through waves and weather by distinct moon and Sun. Carl Sagan
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. Carl Sagan
An atheist has to know more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no God. Carl Sagan
An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Carl Sagan
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. Carl Sagan
But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine. Carl Sagan
There is a lurking fear that some things are not 'meant' to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make. Carl Sagan
A still more glorious dawn awaits / not a sunrise, but a galaxy-rise / a morning filled with 400 billion suns / the rising of the milky way Carl Sagan
Every time you look up at the sky, every one of those points of light is a reminder that fusion power is extractable from hydrogen and other light elements, and it is an everyday reality throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. Carl Sagan
We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering. Carl Sagan