Quotes from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“I would suggest that science is, at least in my part, informed worship.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Science is only a Latin word for knowledge”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“I think the discomfort that some people feel in going to the monkey cages at the zoo is a warning sign.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“So those who wished for some central cosmic purpose for us, or at least our world, or at least our solar system, or at least our galaxy, have been disappointed, progressively disappointed. The universe is not responsive to our ambitious expectations.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“No single step in the persuit of enlightenment should ever be considered sacred; only the search was.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“We batter this planet as if we had someplace else to go.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“When you look more generally at life on Earth, you find that it is all the same kind of life. There are not many different kinds; there's only one kind. It uses about fifty fundamental biological building blocks, organic molecules.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Certainly on this planet it is not apparent that there are beings more intelligent than humans, although a case can be made for dolphins and whales, and in fact if humans succeed in destroying themselves with nuclear weapons, a case can be made that ALL other animals are smarter than humans.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“almost every species that has ever existed is extinct; extinction is the rule, survival is the exception.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“we have a theology that is Earth-centered and involves a tiny piece of space, and when we step back, when we attain a broader cosmic perspective, some of it seems very small in scale. And in fact a general problem with much of Western theology in my view is that the God portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy, much less of a universe.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Now, it would be wholly foolish to deny the existence of laws of nature. And if that is what we are talking about when we say God, then no one can possibly be an atheist, or at least anyone who would profess atheism would have to give a coherent argument about why the laws of nature are inapplicable. I think he or she would be hard-pressed. So with this latter definition of God, we all believe in God.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Does trying to understand the universe at all betray a lack of humility ? I believe it is true that humility is the only just response in a confrontation with the universe, but not a humility that prevents us from seeking the nature of the universe we are admiring. If we seek that nature, then love can be informed by truth instead of being based on ignorance and self-deception. If a Creator God exists, would He or She or It or whatever the appropriate pronoun is, prefer a kind of sodden blockhead who worships while understanding nothing ? Or would He prefer His votaries to admire the real universe in all its intricacy ? I would suggest that science is, at least in part, informed worship. My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, then our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves. On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, then our curiosity and our intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival in an extremely dangerous time. In either case the enterprise of knowledge is consistent surely with science; it should be with religion, and it is essential for the welfare of the human species.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“As science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. It's a big universe, of course, so He, She, or It, could be profitably employed in many places. But what has clearly been happening is that evolving before our eyes has been a God of the Gaps; that is, whatever it is we cannot explain lately is attributed to God. And then after a while, we explain it, and so that's no longer God's realm.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“If we are to discuss the idea of God and be restricted to rational arguments, then it is probably useful to know what we are talking about when we say “God.” This turns out not to be easy. The Romans called the Christians atheists. Why? Well, the Christians had a god of sorts, but it wasn’t a real god. They didn’t believe in the divinity of apotheosized emperors or Olympian gods. They had a peculiar, different kind of god. So it was very easy to call people who believed in a different kind of god atheists. And that general sense that an atheist is anybody who doesn’t believe exactly as I do prevails in our own time.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that’s their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“If there is as a continuum from self-reproducing molecules, such as DNA, to microbes, and an evolutionary sequence continuum from microbes to humans, why should we imagine that continuum to stop at humans?”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“And were the vision of Democritus to have been adopted by Western civilization, instead of being cast aside for the pale views of Plato and Aristotle, we would be vastly further ahead today, in”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“And all I’m saying is that it is within our capability to survive. I don’t guarantee it. Prophecy is a lost art. And I don’t know what the probabilities are that we will go one way or another. And no one says it’s easy. But it is clear, as Einstein said, that if we do not make a change in our way of thinking, all is lost.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“His argument was not with God but with those who believed that our understanding of the sacred had been completed. Science’s permanently revolutionary conviction that the search for truth never ends seemed to him the only approach with sufficient humility to be worthy of the universe that it revealed.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“However, he never understood why anyone would want to separate science, which is just a way of searching for what is true, from what we hold sacred, which are those truths that inspire love and awe.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“The word "religion" comes from the Latin for "binding together," to connect that which has been sundered apart. It's a very interesting concept. And in this sense of seeking the deepest interrelations among things that superficially appear to be sundered, the objectives of religion and science, I believe, are identical or very nearly so. But the question has to do with the reliability of the truths claimed by the two fields and the methods of approach.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“There are a vast number of stars within our galaxy. The number is not so large as the number of cometary nuclei around the Sun but is nevertheless hardly modest. It's about 400 billion stars, of which the Sun is one.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

“what is wanted is not the will to believe, but the desire to find out, which is the exact opposite.”
― Carl Sagan, quote from The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

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Popular quotes

“Phaethon asked: “Do you think there is something wrong with the Sophotechs? We are Manorials, father! We let Rhadamanthus control our finances and property, umpire our disputes, teach our children, design our thoughtscapes, and even play matchmaker to find us wives and husbands!”

“Son, the Sophotechs may be sufficient to advise the Parliament on laws and rules. Laws are a matter of logic and common sense. Specially designed human-thinking versions, like Rhadamanthus, can tell us how to fulfill our desires and balance our account books. Those are questions of strategy, of efficient allocation of resources and time. But the Sophotechs, they cannot choose our desires for us. They cannot guide our culture, our values, our tastes. That is a question of the spirit.”

“Then what would you have us do? Would you change our laws?”

“Our mores, not our laws. There are many things which are repugnant, deadly to the spirit, and self-destructive, but which law should not forbid. Addiction, self-delusion, self-destruction, slander, perversion, love of ugliness. How can we discourage such things without the use of force? It was in response to this need that the College of Hortators evolved. Peacefully, by means of boycotts, public protests, denouncements, and shunnings, our society can maintain her sanity against the dangers to our spirit, to our humanity, to which such unboundried liberty, and such potent technology, exposes us.”

(...) But Phaethon certainly did not want to hear a lecture, not today. “Why are you telling me all this? What is the point?”

“Phaethon, I will let you pass through those doors, and, once through, you will have at your command all the powers and perquisites I myself possess. The point of my story is simple. The paradox of liberty of which you spoke before applies to our entire society. We cannot be free without being free to harm ourselves. Advances in technology can remove physical dangers from our lives, but, when they do, the spiritual dangers increase. By spiritual danger I mean a danger to your integrity, your decency, your sense of life. Against those dangers I warn you; you can be invulnerable, if you choose, because no spiritual danger can conquer you without your own consent. But, once they have your consent, those dangers are all-powerful, because no outside force can come to your aid. Spiritual dangers are always faced alone. It is for this reason that the Silver-Gray School was formed; it is for this reason that we practice the exercise of self-discipline. Once you pass those doors, my son, you will be one of us, and there will be nothing to restrain you from corruption and self-destruction except yourself.

“You have a bright and fiery soul, Phaethon, a power to do great things; but I fear you may one day unleash such a tempest of fire that you may consume yourself, and all the world around you.”
― quote from The Golden Age

“Where have you been?" She thought, her mind running through the scenarios she could give him that he'd believe. "Just…trying to get my life together. You know, college, housing, making sure Dad's taken care of…getting engaged." He stopped all movement and I sighed, knowing what was coming. "Where's your ring if you're getting engaged?" "Well," Maggie started, "I don't have one yet." He turned a deep crimson before yelling over his shoulder. "Smarty! Get my meat dicer!" Every customer is the joint turned to stare at us, the ones causing the commotion. Maggie tried damage control. "Big John, it's fine. I didn't want one. Caleb's family is very…traditional. He has other things planned for me instead of a ring." "Like what?" he boomed and got closer to look down at me. "What kind of dolt doesn't get his girl a ring?" "The kind that buys her a house instead,”
― Shelly Crane, quote from Independence

“What place does a woman have here, in the realm of men?”
― Lisa Ann Sandell, quote from Song of the Sparrow

“My love for her is stronger than my hatred of you.”
― Maya Banks, quote from Never Seduce a Scot

“It is your choice,” he said, so close to me that our lips were almost touching. “Either do what I say—or get another job.”
― Robert Thier, quote from Storm and Silence

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