Looking for inspirational Carl Sagan quotes about the universe?

Carl Sagan was born Carl Edward Sagan in Brooklyn, New York on November 9, 1934.

His interest in astronomy began when he was five years old, when his mother sent him to the library to find books on stars.

Soon afterwards, his parents took him to the New York World’s Fair, where interest of the future made his passion grow further.

He also quickly became a fan of the prevalent 1940s science-fiction stories in popular magazines of the times.

He was drawn in by reports of flying saucers that suggested extraterrestrial life.

Carl Sagan is inspirational because, no matter how much recognition or how many awards he got, he never let it get to him. He just continued pursuing his love of the sciences.

See what you can discover for yourself through these famous Carl Sagan quotes.

Don’t forget to also read our collection of interesting Nikola Tesla quotes as well as these Edgar Allan Poe quotes that will help you see things from an interesting perspective.

Carl Sagan quotes about our place in the universe

1. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan

2. “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”– Carl Sagan

3. “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies was made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.” – Carl Sagan

4. “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.” – Carl Sagan

5. “A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years.

Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”

– Carl Sagan

6. “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan

7. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” – Carl Sagan

8. “Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?” – Carl Sagan

9. “In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it.

It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”– Carl Sagan

10. “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan

Also read these motivational Stephen Hawking quotes.

Carl Sagan quotes from Blue Dot

11. “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.” – Carl Sagan

12. “I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.” – Carl Sagan

13. “But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, and they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” – Carl Sagan

14. “We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.” – Carl Sagan

15. “We are like butterflies that flutter for a day and think it is forever.” – Carl Sagan

16. “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” – Carl Sagan

17. “You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.” – Carl Sagan

18. “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.” – Carl Sagan

19. “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’ Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” – Carl Sagan

20. “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” – Carl Sagan

You might also like these galaxy quotes for those who wonder.

Carl Sagan quotes about life and faith

21. “The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.” – Carl Sagan

22. “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” – Carl Sagan

23. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” – Carl Sagan

24. “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” – Carl Sagan

25. “I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.” – Carl Sagan

26. “Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.” – Carl Sagan

27. “Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.” – Carl Sagan

28. “If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?” – Carl Sagan

29. “We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” – Carl Sagan

30. “The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.” – Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan quotes about humanity

31. “A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.” – Carl Sagan

32. “All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.” – Carl Sagan

33. “The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.” – Carl Sagan

34. “When you make the finding yourself – even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light – you’ll never forget it.” – Carl Sagan

35. “The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.” – Carl Sagan

36. “We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.” – Carl Sagan

37. “I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students.” – Carl Sagan

38. “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan

39. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” – Carl Sagan

More Carl Sagan quotes about science and space

40. “But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” – Carl Sagan

41. “There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.” – Carl Sagan

42. “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

43. “Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.” – Carl Sagan

44. “What a marvelous cooperative arrangement – plants and animals each inhaling each other’s exhalations, a kind of planet-wide mutual mouth-to-stoma resuscitation, the entire elegant cycle powered by a star 150 million kilometers away.” – Carl Sagan

45. “If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn’t he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why’s he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there’s one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He’s not good at design, he’s not good at execution. He’d be out of business, if there was any competition.” – Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan quotes that will expand your mind

46. “We are fortunate: we are alive; we are powerful; the welfare of our civilization and our species is in our hands. If we do not speak for Earth, who will? If we are not committed to our own survival, who will be?”― Carl Sagan

47. “For all our failings, despite our limitations and fallibilities, we humans are capable of greatness.”― Carl Sagan

48. “We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.”― Carl Sagan

49. “Intellectual capacity is no guarantee against being dead wrong.”― Carl Sagan

50. “We are privileged to live in, and if we are lucky to influence, one of the most critical epochs in the history of the human species.”― Carl Sagan

51. “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.”― Carl Sagan

52. “The nature of life on Earth and the search for life elsewhere are two sides of the same question—the search for who we are.”― Carl Sagan

53. “The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”― Carl Sagan

54. “I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”― Carl Sagan

55. “Science is an ongoing process. It never ends. There is no single ultimate truth to be achieved, after which all the scientists can retire.”― Carl Sagan

56. “Are we willing to tolerate ignorance and complacency in matters that affect the entire human family?”― Carl Sagan

57. “Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking.”― Carl Sagan

58. “We tend not to be especially critical when presented with evidence that seems to confirm our prejudices.”― Carl Sagan

59. “I would rather be a transformed ape than a degenerate son of Adam.”― Carl Sagan

60. “The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.”― Carl Sagan

What do you think about these Carl Sagan quotes?

In 1980, Carl Sagan co-founded the Planetary Society, an international non-profit to focus on space exploration. He also launched Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, a TV series he wrote and hosted.

Over Sagan’s career, he received many medals, including NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal (1977, 1981) and the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal (1994), plus a myriad of others.

Aside from being one of the well-known scientists of his time, he was also an author. Among his famous works included: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark; Cosmos; Pale Blue Dot: A Vision for the Human Future In Space; The Dragons of Eden: Speculations of the Evolution of Human Intelligence; and Contact.

Whether or not you’re a big science fan, you can still learn a thing or two from these Carl Sagan quotes.