Original artwork, not a still
Cosmos · 1980
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It reads as a joke and is a lesson: to explain a pie fully you need nucleosynthesis, and every ingredient is a chain of causes running back to the Big Bang. Fans quote it for the scientific humility and the Sagan voice, and it turned up on posters, T-shirts and a long run of internet memes. Whether it comes from the book or the broadcast, the idea is the series in miniature.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for CosmosShow the scene
Sagan uses the line to show that nothing in the universe stands alone. In the Cosmos television series, it comes in episode 9, 'The Lives of the Stars', first aired by PBS on 23 November 1980: the simple job of making an apple pie is traced back through its ingredients to the atoms in them, and on to the stars where those elements were formed. The book of the same name, published the same year, carries the line too, on page 218 in the Wikiquote reference.
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: Cosmos: A Personal VoyageEpisode list, episode 9Reference checked
- Wikiquote: Carl SaganCosmos (1980) section, p. 218Reference checked
Context reviewed
