Because men, compared to male chimps, have such relatively small testicles (large testicles indicate a species where many males mate, one after the other, with the same female), we might guess that promiscuous societies were uncommon in the immediate human past.

Carl Sagan

Categorized in : Past Men Males

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

taken science long

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good.... by Carl Sagan

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.

understanding wisdom brain

I don't want to believe. I want to know. by Carl Sagan

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

religious inspirational life

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

education motivational knowledge

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. by Carl Sagan

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

educational hope positive

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.

vastness prejudice science

If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will s... by Carl Sagan

If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves.

ifs

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe

atheist faith death

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 starstuff.

iron apples stars

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But wi... by Carl Sagan

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

motivation life art

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. by Carl Sagan

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

evidence absence

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

atheist witty death

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence by Carl Sagan

Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence

evidence demand claims

The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.

dangerous-world marijuana weed

The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.

stars numbers beach

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - [...] when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

children hands america

The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it.

names children jesus

If you look at Earth from space you see a dot, that's here. That's home. That's us. It underscores the responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

responsibility home blue

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. by Carl Sagan

Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.

hard fantasy comforting

Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

ocean stars long