Anything you don't understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it.
Carl Sagan
- Life
- 1934-1996
- Occupations
- cosmologist, astrophysicist, novelist
- Notable works
- The Demon-Haunted World, Pale Blue Dot, Cosmos
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
"Every government that prepares for war paints its adversaries as monsters," she said. "They don't want you thinking of the other side as human. If the enemy can think and feel, you might hesitate to kill them. And killing is very important. Better to see them as monsters."
Carl Sagan
Every government that prepares for war paints its adversaries as monsters, she said. “They don’t want you thinking of the other side as human. If the enemy can think and feel, you might hesitate to kill them. And killing is very important. Better to see them as monsters.”
Carl Sagan
If we like them, they're freedom fighters, she thought. If we don't like them, they're terrorists. In the unlikely case we can't make up our minds, they're temporarily only guerrillas.
Carl Sagan
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Carl Sagan
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Carl Sagan
She came to admire him so much that his love for her affected her own self-esteem: She liked herself better because of him.
Carl Sagan
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
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right.
Carl Sagan
...there was something unmistakably attractive about them. They were excellent at what they did and, especially in the discovery process, were utterly absorbed in their work.
Carl Sagan
We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.
Carl Sagan
You know, someone in my position---new inventions, new industries---is always on the thin edge of breaking some law or other. Usually it's because the old laws haven't caught up with the new technology. You can spend a lot of your time in litigation. It cuts down your effectiveness.
Carl Sagan
You know, someone in my position—new inventions, new industries—is always on the thin edge of breaking some law or other. Usually it’s because the old laws haven’t caught up with the new technology. You can spend a lot of your time in litigation. It cuts down your effectiveness.
Carl Sagan