Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If the greenhouse effect is a blanket in which we wrap ourselves to keep warm, nuclear winter kicks the blanket off.
The dumbing down of America is evident in the slow decay of substantive content, a kind of celebration of ignorance.
There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
Every cell is a triumph of natural selection, and we’re made of trillions of cells. Within us, is a little universe.
Human beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.
A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars. Every star may be a sun to someone.
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."
How lucky we are to live in this time / the first moment in human history / when we are in fact visiting other worlds
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.
The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.
The fact that someone says something doesn't mean it's true. Doesn't mean they're lying, but it doesn't mean it's true.
In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. It's their nature. They can't help it.
Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.
The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature.
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Nature does not always conform to our predispositions and preferences, to what we deem comfortable and easy to understand.
The cannabis experience has greatly improved my appreciation for art, a subject which I had never much appreciated before.
In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams!
Our children long for realistic maps of the future that they can be proud of. Where are the cartographers of human purpose?
If the constellations had been named in the twentieth century, I suppose we would see bicycles and refrigerators in the sky.
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.
We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am the great silent spaces between worlds.'
The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.
It is all a matter of time scale. An event that would be unthinkable in a hundred years may be inevitable in a hundred million.
All inquires carry with them some element of risk. There is no guarantee that the universe will conform to our predispositions.
If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe
Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.
Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.
I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.
We live at a moment when our relationships to each other, and to all other beings with whom we share this planet, are up for grabs.
Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs.
You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary knowledge of human fallibility.
I'm only a four-dimensional creature. Haven't got a clue how to visualise infinity. Even Einstein hadn't. I know because I asked him
Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close.
I don?t feel rejected by the sky. I?m a part of it- tiny, to be sure, but everything is tiny compared to that overwhelming immensity.
There is a lurking fear that some things are not “meant" to be known, that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.
We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 billion years of cosmic evolution.
A googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number 1... no matter what number you have in mind, infinity is larger still.
It's sometimes easier to reject strong evidence than to admit that we've been wrong, this is information about ourselves worth having.
No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it's this world or nothing. That's a very powerful perception.
There are lots of ways to communicate what we know, but few ways to communicate what we feel. Music is one way to communicate emotions.
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be interested in this planet - it's my favorite.