Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of teaching children foundational concepts like the scientific method and the Bill of Rights to foster decency and community spirit.
Carl Sagan highlights the significance of educating future generations about essential principles such as the scientific method and the Bill of Rights. He believes that instilling these ideas in children not only equips them with critical thinking skills but also cultivates virtues like decency, humility, and a sense of community, which are vital for societal progress and harmony.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about educational reform in schools.
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
...Writings can be stolen, or changed, or used for evil purposes. But isn't the risk worth taking? The more people who share knowledge, the greater safeguard for it. Isn't there more danger in ignorance than knowledge?
It is of no use to commit whole pages to memory, merely to recite them once without hesitation; you must think of the meaning more than the words - of the ideas more than the language.
The studious silence of the library ... Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness.
It is absolutely essential that the oppressed participate in the revolutionary process with an increasingly critical awareness of their role as subjects of the transformation.
An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.
Personally I do not resort to force - not even the force of law - to advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and above all the influence of example - of fashion.
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