Carl Sagan Quotes

Kita memang cenderung menciptakan kosmologi yang akrab bagi kita. Meskipun telah berusaha keras, kita tidak terlalu kreatif. Di dunia Barat, Surga itu tenang dan seperti awan, dan Neraka itu seperti di dalam gunung berapi. Dalam banyak cerita, kedua alam itu diatur oleh hierarki dominasi yang dipimpin dewa atau iblis. Kaum monoteis berbicara tentang raja di atas segala raja. Di setiap budaya, kita membayangkan sesuatu seperti sistem politik kita sendiri yang menjalankan Alam Semesta. Tidak banyak yang mencurigai kemiripan ini.

Instead of this, what we need is a honing of the skills of explication, of dialogue, of what used to be called logic and rhetoric and what used to be essential to every college education, a honing of the skills of compassion, which, just like intellectual abilities, need practice to be perfected. If we are to understand another's belief, then we must also understand the deficiencies and inadequacies of our own. And those deficiencies and inadequacies are very major. This is true whichever political or ideological or ethnic or cultural tradition we come from. In a complex universe, in a society undergoing unprecedented change, how can we find the truth if we are not willing to question everything and to give a fair hearing to everything? There is a worldwide close-mindedness that imperils the species. It was always with us, but the risks weren't as grave, because weapons of mass destruction were not then available.

It would seem that our intelligence is the source of our unhappiness in an almost literal way; but it would also imply that our unhappiness is the source of our strength as a species.

The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of you are wrong? It's a possibility, you know. You must care about the truth, right?

القومية من أمراض الطفولة، وهي حصبة الجنس البشري

You get to thinking of the Earth as an organism, a living thing. You get to worry about it, care for it, wish it well. National boundaries are as invisible as meridians of longitude, or the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The boundaries are arbitrary. The planet is real. Spaceflight, therefore, is subversive. If they are fortunate enough to find themselves in Earth orbit, most people, after a little meditation, have similar thoughts. The nations that had instituted spaceflight had done so largely for nationalistic reasons; it was a small irony that almost everyone who entered space received a startling glimpse of a transnational perspective, of the Earth as one world.

La guerra atómica es la negación de las virtudes del militar: nada tiene de valeroso apretar un botón letal.

This is Phobos... Its mean density is known, and it is consistent with organic matter. Deimos... same story.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

So next time you hear a raving demagogue counseling hatred for other, slightly different groups of humans, for a moment at least see if you can understand his problem: He is heeding an ancient call that — however dangerous, obsolete, and maladaptive it may be today — once benefitted our species.

And reading itself is an amazing activity: You glance at a thin, flat object made from a tree...and the voice of the author begins to speak inside your head. (Hello!)

For all the tenure of humans on Earth, the night sky had been a companion and an inspiration. The stars were comforting. They seemed to demonstrate that the heavens were created for the benefit and instruction of humans. This pathetic conceit became the conventional wisdom worldwide. No culture was free of it. Some people found in the skies an aperture to the religious sensibility. Many were awestruck and humbled by the glory and scale of the cosmos. Others were stimulated to the most extravagant flights of fancy.

«قد يجادل أحد، بأن الدجلنة يجري اعتناقها على نحو يتناسب طرديًا وبدقة مع عدم فهم العلم الحقيقي فإذا كنت لم تسمع عن العلم مطلقًا (ناهيك عن الطريقة التي يسير بها)، فستكون بالكاد قادرًا على الوعي بأنك تعتنق الدجلنة. وما تفعله ببساطة هو التفكير بإحدى الطرق التي يُفكر بها البشر دائمًا. فالأديان غالبًا ما تكون بمثابة الحضانات التي تحميها الدولة كي تترعرع داخلها الدجلنة، رغم عدم وجود سبب يضطر الدين إلى لعب هذا الدور. فهذا الدور إلى حد ما شيء اصطنعه الإنسان منذ عصور موغلة في القدم. ففي بعض البلاد، يعتقد الجميع، تقريبًا، في التنجيم والمعرفة المسبقة بالأحداث، بما في ذلك زعماء الحكومات. غير أن هذا لم يقحم على عقولهم ببساطة بفعل الدين، وإنما هذا الإيمان بالتنجيم مستمد من الثقافة المحيطة التي يستريح فيها الجميع إلى هذه الممارسات، والشواهد التي تؤكد ذلك توجد في كل مكان.»

...todo gobierno se degenera cuando se deja solos a los gobernantes, porque éstos -por el mero hecho de gobernar- hacen mal uso de la confianza pública.

The best antidote for pseudoscience, I firmly believe, is science.