If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone?
Carl SaganYou'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 SaganWhen Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions, that is the heart of science.
Carl SaganWe live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.
Carl SaganHuman beings grew up in forests; we have a natural affinity for them. How lovely a tree is, straining toward the sky.
Carl SaganWe on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.
Carl Sagan