34 Meaningful Carl Sagan Quotes About Earth: Why Our Planet Is Worth Saving

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and author. However, he’s most famous for popularizing science and helping others understand the world around them. In his life, he’s written and edited over 20 books, as well as countless scientific papers.

Sagan dedicated his life to science and teaching others how to save the Earth and the environment. To honor this incredible man’s legacy, here are the best Carl Sagan quotes about Earth.

Best 34 Carl Sagan Quotes About Earth

Impactful Carl Sagan Quotes About Earth

#1. “We’re in very bad trouble if we don’t understand the planet we’re trying to save.”

#2. “In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.”

#3. “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.”

#4. “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.”

#5. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”

#6. “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.”

#7. “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

#8. “The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking. It’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.”

#9. “Our species needs and deserves a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.”

Carl Sagan Quotes About the Universe

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

#11. “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?”

#12. “It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

#13. “The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.”

#14. “The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.”

#15. “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”

#16. “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

#17. “Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.”

Insightful Carl Sagan Quotes About Earth

#18. “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.”

#19. “The prediction I can make with the highest confidence is that the most amazing discoveries will be the ones we are not today wise enough to foresee.”

#20. “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.”

#21. “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.”

#22. “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.”

#23. “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere.”

#24. “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.”

#25. “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.”

#26. “We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”

#27. “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.”

Carl Sagan Quotes About Science

#28. “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

#29. “We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”

#30. “The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use, we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.”

#31. “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.”

#32. “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star-stuff.”

#33. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

#34. “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.”

To Conclude

Carl Sagan has had an incredible impact on how we perceive the universe and the world around us. Always a true visionary, Sagan pushed the boundaries and encouraged young minds to pursue careers in science. Even though his life had been cut short, this brilliant man will forever live on in these Carl Sagan quotes about Earth.

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