Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of vi… - Carl Sagan
" "Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of view of others, and not just those in power; to contemplate — with the best teachers — the insights, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history. They allow people long dead to talk inside our heads. Books can accompany us everywhere. Books are patient where we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.
English
Collect this quote
About Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (9 November 1934 – 20 December 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect. He testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect will change the earth's climate system.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Also Known As
Native Name:
Carl Edward Sagan
Alternative Names:
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
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Shorter versions of this quote
Additional quotes by Carl Sagan
A una cena, molti decenni fa, fu chiesto al fisico Robert W. Wood di rispondere al brindisi «alla fisica e alla metafisica». Per «metafisica» si intendeva qualcosa di simile alla filosofia, ossia verità che si potrebbero riconoscere semplicemente riflettendo su di esse. Fra queste verità poteva esserci anche la pseudoscienza. Wood rispose pressappoco nel modo seguente: il fisico ha un’idea. Quanto più riflette su di essa, tanto più gli pare che abbia senso. La consultazione della letteratura scientifica gli fa sembrare l’idea ancora più promettente. Allora va in laboratorio per verificarla con un esperimento. L’esperimento è lungo e complesso. Il fisico controlla molte possibilità, affina la precisione delle misurazioni e riduce il margine di errore. L’unica cosa che gli interessa è il responso dell’esperimento. Alla fine di tutto questo lavoro l’idea risulta sbagliata. Il
fisico, allora, la lascia cadere, si libera la mente dall’errore e passa a studiare qualche altra cosa.
La differenza fra fisica e metafisica, concluse Wood alzando il bicchiere, non è che i cultori dell’una siano più intelligenti dei cultori dell’altra. La differenza sta nel fatto che il metafisico non ha un laboratorio.
Try QuoteGPT
Chat naturally about what you need. Each answer links back to real quotes with citations.
We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand suns are born; where life is sparked by sunlight and lightning in the airs and waters of youthful planets; where the raw material for biological evolution is sometimes made by the explosion of a star halfway across the Milky Way; where a thing as beautiful as a galaxy is formed a hundred billion times - a Cosmos of quasars and quarks, snowflakes and fireflies, where there may be black holes and other universe and extraterrestrial civilizations whose radio messages are at this moment reaching the Earth. How pallid by comparison are the pretensions of superstition and pseudoscience; how important it is for us to pursue and understand science, that characteristically human endeavor.
Loading...