Carl Sagan Quotes About Understanding

Quotes about: Understanding

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  The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

  Carl Sagan

  Wisdom, Understanding, Brain

• Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

  Carl Sagan

  Education, Atheist, Thinking

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.430, Ballantine Books

• But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Thinking, Understanding

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.234, Ballantine Books

• A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.

  Carl Sagan

  Freedom, Science, Simple

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.176, Ballantine Books

• Understanding is a kind of ecstasy

  Carl Sagan

  Understanding, Curiosity, Kind

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.17, Ballantine Books

• If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Data, Support You

  "The Burden of Skepticism" by Carl Sagan, 1987.

• The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home.

  Carl Sagan

  Home, Science, Understanding

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.25, Ballantine Books

• The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos.

  Carl Sagan

  Understanding, Cosmos, Joining

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.53, Ballantine Books

• We are an intelligent species and the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.

  Carl Sagan

  Respect, Science, Intelligent

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science”, p.17, Ballantine Books

• 'In his celebrated book, 'On Liberty', the English philosopher John Stuart Mill argued that silencing an opinion is "a peculiar evil." If the opinion is right, we are robbed of the "opportunity of exchanging error for truth"; and if it's wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in its "collision with error." If we know only our own side of the argument, we hardly know even that: it becomes stale, soon learned by rote, untested, a pallid and lifeless truth.'

  Carl Sagan

  Truth, Book, Opportunity

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.550, Ballantine Books

• What a splendid perspective contact with a profoundly different civilization might provide! In a cosmic setting vast and old beyond ordinary human understanding we are a little lonely, and we ponder the ultimate significance, if any, of our tiny but exquisite blue planet, the Earth.... In the deepest sense the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves.

  Carl Sagan

  Lonely, Blue, Civilization

• 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.

  Carl Sagan

  Suicidal, Science, Long

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.176, Ballantine Books

• We are...capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet. To enhance enormously our understanding of the Universe, and to carry us to the stars.

  Carl Sagan

  Meaningful, Stars, Compassion

• We need to reduce military budgets; raise living standards; engender respect for learning; support science, scholarship, invention, and industry; promote free inquiry; reduce domestic coercion; involve the workers more in managerial decisions; and promote genuine respect and understanding derived from an acknowledgement of our common humanity and our common jeopardy.

  Carl Sagan

  Military, Common Humanity, Decision

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium”, p.178, Ballantine Books

• Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.

  Carl Sagan

  Book, Keys, Understanding

  "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark". Book by Carl Sagan, Ch. 21: The Path to Freedom, 1995.

• Wisdom lies in understanding our limitations.

  Carl Sagan

  Lying, Understanding, Limitation

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.43, Ballantine Books

• The understanding of the intent of the artist which I can achieve when high sometimes carries over to when I’m down. This is one of many human frontiers which cannabis has helped me traverse.

  Carl Sagan

  Artist, Understanding, Sometimes

  "Mr. X". Essay by Carl Sagan, hermiene.net. 1969.

• We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world.

  Carl Sagan

  Understanding, World, Daily Life

  "A Brief History of Time". Book by Stephen Hawking, Introduction, 1988.

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