Heroes for a Better World

Carl Sagan
(1934-1996)

American Scientist, Social Activist
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Peace Leadership Award

birthdate: November 9
birthplace:
Brooklyn, New York

QUOTES

CREATIVITY
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

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

HUMAN RIGHTS
In every country, 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. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.

LEADERSHIP
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.

LITERACY
"One of the greatest gifts adults can give -- to their offspring and to their society -- is to read to children."

LOVE
"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

NO NUKES
Except for fools and madmen, everyone knows that nuclear war would he an unprecedented human catastrophe.

It is now almost 40 years since the invention of nuclear weapons. We have not yet experienced a global thermonuclear war -- although on more than one occasion we have come tremulously close. I do not think our luck can hold forever. Men and machines are fallible, as recent events remind us. Fools and madmen do exist, and sometimes rise to power. Concentrating always on the near future, we have ignored the long-term consequences of our actions. We have placed our civilization and our species in jeopardy. Fortunately, it is not yet too late. We can safeguard the planetary civilization and the human family if we so choose. There is no more important or more urgent issue.

PEACE
It is clear that the nations of the world now can only rise and fall together. It is not a question of one nation winning at the expense of another. We must all help one another or all perish together.

SPIRITUALITY
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.

MORE QUOTES
"We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself."

It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.

 


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