Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
Is mankind alone in the universe? Or are there somewhere other intelligent beings looking up into their night sky from very different worlds and asking the same kind of question?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on humanity's curiosity about the existence of extraterrestrial life.
Carl Sagan's quote contemplates the profound question of whether humanity is the only intelligent life in the universe or if other beings are gazing at the stars with similar wonder. It encourages us to think about our place in the cosmos and the possibility of shared experiences across vast distances and different worlds.
Themes
UniverseIntelligenceCuriosityExtraterrestrialLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of space exploration, one might quote this to emphasize the search for extraterrestrial life.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
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.
Carl SaganRead
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.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
Everybody who's a physician, who makes vaccines, who wants to find the cure for cancer. Everybody who wants to do any medical good for humankind got the passion for that before he or she was 10.
Bill NyeRead
All of my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried to make sense of what you see, you too have started to wonder what makes the universe exist.
Stephen HawkingRead
Scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and instruments, but in the ened your preparations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accrued to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work.
Michael CrichtonRead
Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap - it is all in the mind.
Stephen HawkingRead
When the first humans reached Australia about 45,000 years ago, they quickly drove to extinction 90% of its large animals. This was the first significant impact that Homo sapiens had on the planet's ecosystem. It was not the last.
Yuval Noah HarariRead
I really like science because it seems to be that place where you get the big picture, everything connects.
Richard PowersRead