Original artwork, not a still
Misattributed to Carl Sagan
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It sounds so much like Sagan, wonder wrapped in a promise, that a magazine's closing flourish was promoted to his motto. The line is a fine example of how a reporter's paraphrase of a scientist's mood can outlive the article, lose its quotation marks and end up on posters and in slide decks. It still fits his belief that the search was worth making whatever it found.
Context reviewed
In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
Newsweek's cover story of 15 August 1977, "Seeking Other Worlds", profiled Sagan and ended by saying that the romantic Brooklyn boy might never meet Barsoom's green giants but that stranger discoveries lay ahead. Its last sentence, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known", sat outside quotation marks, in the writers' own voice. Quote Investigator found no evidence Sagan said it. In 2015 Sharon Begley, one of four reporters on the piece, confirmed the words were hers, not his.
Sources (2)
- Quote Investigator: Somewhere, Something Incredible Is Waiting To Be Knownmain article, Newsweek 15 Aug 1977 passage and Begley contactReference checked
- Wikiquote: Carl Sagan (Misattributed)Misattributed sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
