We are only intelligent by our own measures Neil deGrasse Tyson More Quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson More Quotes From Neil deGrasse Tyson I'm not writing for myself. I'm writing as an educator, I'm writing to stimulate others. Neil deGrasse Tyson educator writing Also, where does your identity come from? Your memory, of course. Neil deGrasse Tyson identity doe memories Curiosity is a self-driven motivation to explore and to learn. Learning is like... you know, you have to take your medicine. And that is what it has become. And that's unfortunate. Neil deGrasse Tyson medicine motivation self Everybody's got money for vacation time. Look at how much we all spend just to get - well, I get sick on the loop-the-loop roller coasters. People pay money for that kind of experience. So I would certainly save up money, save several vacations worth of money, to go on a suborbital flight or any rocket flights. Neil deGrasse Tyson vacation get-well people There are books on my shelf that I'm not into. They are things I don't know anything about yet. It's going to lead me off into a new place. The books don't represent an interest; they represent a source of my ignorance. Neil deGrasse Tyson source ignorance book There's nothing a teacher likes better than ten minute videos. It's not the whole class, but it's not too short, it's enough to wrap a lesson plan around. Neil deGrasse Tyson lessons class teacher There are two kinds of comments that I get. One is, oh, you're such a natural up there, and the other one is, you're working hard up there. And the ones who say I'm working hard are teachers, they're the educators; they're the people who are the performers. It's a huge investment of my psycho-emotional energy to pull that off and to make it look smooth. Neil deGrasse Tyson emotional teacher two In the first year of a child's life we teach them to walk and talk. And then for the rest of their lives we want them to sit down and be quiet. Neil deGrasse Tyson want children years We account for all the matter and energy that we're familiar with, measure up how much gravity it should have, it's one-sixth of the gravity that's actually operating on the universe. We call that dark matter. It really should be called dark gravity. We don't know what that is. Neil deGrasse Tyson should-have matter dark But one of the coolest things about meteorites is that most were formed four-and-a-half-billion years ago, during the birth of our solar system, when, for reasons not yet known, a cloud of gas and dust was transformed into a sun with circling planets. Neil deGrasse Tyson dust clouds years I was raised Catholic. But if someone says I was raised in some religion, that's insufficient information to actually know what was going on. The real question is Was the religion in the household? The answer is no. Important decisions in the household were executed rationally and secularly. So as a result, the foundations of my reasoning derive not from religion but from the rational analysis of circumstances. Neil deGrasse Tyson catholic decision real That is a big question we all have: are we alone in the universe? And exoplanets confirm the suspicion that planets are not rare. Neil deGrasse Tyson suspicion planets bigs Nature is not here to keep you alive. It has just as many ways to kill you as it does to sustain you. And if you cherry-pick this fact, you are left thinking that earth is some haven for life, but 96, 97 percent of all species that ever lived on earth are now extinct from the actions of the earth itself and an occasional asteroid to stir the pot. Neil deGrasse Tyson earth action thinking I have a very high respect for professional comedians. What they do astonishes me. You have to be really smart and absorb everything, repackage it, bring it back to the person, and make them laugh at themselves. I can make people laugh during my talks because they didn't come to have me make them laugh. It's added value. So my job is way easier than that of a professional comic. Neil deGrasse Tyson smart laughing people Curiosity is unknown. All adults were once kids and once curious, but as adults you don't remember that and you see curiosity when it's expressed in children as a pathway to household disaster. They're simply exploring their environment, manifesting their curiosity. So what you need to do is create an environment where curiosity is rewarded rather than punished, or thwarted. Neil deGrasse Tyson curiosity kids children Curiosity is missing. Curiosity in particular is something that the system, not only the educational system but, the parental... what you do as a parent at home. Neil deGrasse Tyson educational parent home I'm revealing information to people. I'm not creating it. And to the extent that people embrace it, I think they're empowered by it, because any time you have a bigger perspective today than you did yesterday, it's got to be only for the good of your mind, your body, your soul. Neil deGrasse Tyson perspective people thinking You could do math early, but there are no brilliant 16-year-old novelists. They don't know the human condition yet. Neil deGrasse Tyson novelists math years I grew up in New York City where there is no night sky. Nobody has a relationship with the sky, because, particularly in the day, there was air pollution and light pollution, and you look up, and your sight line terminates on buildings. You know the sun and maybe the moon, and that's about it. So what happens is that I am exposed to the night sky as you would see it from a mountaintop, and I'm just struck by it. Suppose I grew up on a farm where I had that sky every night of my life - then you're not going to be struck by it. It's just the wallpaper of your nighttime dome. Neil deGrasse Tyson moon new-york night Let's create a World's Fair that captures everybody's visions of tomorrow together and let's celebrate that vision. Let's have articles on it with illustrators imagining how we'd be living differently. Neil deGrasse Tyson vision together world
