The very act of understanding is a celebration of joining, merging, even if on a very modest scale, with the magnificence of the Cosmos.
Carl SaganRecent research shows that many children without enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn (โcognitive impairmentโ ). Children don't have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernourishment โ the kind most common among poor people in America โ can do it.
Carl SaganThe total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.
Carl SaganChlorine is a deadly poison gas employed on European battlefields in World War I. Sodium is a corrosive metal which burns upon contact with water. Together they make a placid and unpoisonous material, table salt. Why each of these substances has the properties it does is a subject called chemistry.
Carl SaganNot all birds can fly. What separates the flyers from the walkers is the ability to take off.
Carl SaganOne of the saddest lessons of history is this: If weโve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. Weโre no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. Itโs simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that weโve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Carl Sagan