1,131 Quotes by Carl Sagan

I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

The universe forces those who live in it to understand it.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

I’m struck again by the irony that spaceflight-conceived in the cauldron of nationalist rivalries and hatreds-brings with it a stunning transnational vision. You spend even a little time contemplating the Earth from orbit and the most deeply engrained nationalisms begin to erode. They seem the squabbles of mites on a plum.

But I could be wrong.

We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock.

Books tap the wisdom of our species -- the greatest minds, the best teachers -- from all over the world and from all our history. And they're patient.

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses.

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.