Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. | |
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. | |
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. | |
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. | |
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | The Imposition Of Position |
Rainin’ Fire In The Sky | |
2020 | Stand Up! |
Crowd Sourced Scouting Report | |
2019 | Only One Direction |
2018 | Respect Is Long Gone |
2017 | Dream Of Dreamers |
2016 | Dear Automakers |
2015 | And Some Not So Brave Too |
2014 | In My Lifetime… |
2013 | Democracy |
2012 | Borrowed Expectations |
2011 | Not Necessarily True |
Posts Tagged ‘Carl Sagan’
This Dot – Our Home
Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Earth, Environment, Philosophy, Planet, Quotes, Science on April 13, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Or Less Perceptive
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Carl Sagan, Dust, Earth, Human Beings, Perception, Philosophy, Planets, Quotes, Sand, Solar System, Space, Stars on April 12, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are as sand, as dust – or less than dust – in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
No other planet in the solar system is a suitable home for human beings; it’s this world or nothing. That’s a very powerful perception. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | We Need Professional Journalists AND The First Amendment |
It Was Rainin’ Hard | |
2020 | Neither Alone, Nor Lonely |
Giving | |
2019 | That’s Why It’s Called Faith |
2018 | So We Agree, #45 Is Dumb – Too |
2017 | The Morality Of Spying |
2016 | He Doesn’t Remind Me Of Me |
The First Rule | |
2015 | Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow |
The Man Without Fear | |
2014 | I Blame Robocop |
2013 | Future Trustees |
2012 | Praise Not The Day… |
2011 | Educated Living |
Working Out
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Brains, Carl Sagan, Joy, Muscles, Philosophy, Quotes, Understanding on April 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | Fortes Fortuna Juvat* |
Layin’ In Bed | |
2020 | For Sale |
2019 | Letting Go |
2018 | Trying To Give More |
2017 | The Reproductive Value Of A Presidential Election |
2016 | For Me It’s Been Faith |
2015 | Where Many Paths And Errands Meet |
2014 | Rimmed Out |
2013 | Likeness |
2012 | Sums It Up Quite Well, Actually |
2011 | Momentary Abandonment |
A Little Perspective
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Earth, Galaxies, Humanity, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Stars on February 16, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | Put ‘Er There |
Are You Goin’ On Again? | |
2020 | And In The Back |
2019 | Sunlight Stream |
2018 | Wars Without Taxes |
2017 | Multiplication And Division |
2016 | I Went To The Woods… |
2015 | I’ve Got To Run |
2014 | Which Is It? |
2013 | Making You Stronger |
2012 | Sick Of Being Sick |
Greater Than Power | |
2011 | Clear, Specific And Measurable |
2010 | The Runner’s High |
Into The Dark… | |
Republican Ambling
Posted in Education, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Human Fallibility, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Republicans, Science on January 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Science is … a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2021 | I’d Argue Wealth, Then Income |
Knock Him Off His Feet | |
2020 | Steppin’… |
2019 | Every Vote Counts |
2018 | Or A President |
2017 | Pleasures |
2016 | Why Not? |
2015 | Je Suis Charlie |
2014 | To The Nines |
2013 | Higher And Truer |
2012 | Life’s Last Question |
2011 | A Single Heartbeat |
A Little Male Humor – WHY MEN SHOULDN’T RETIRE | |
Overcoming Fear And Deflated Pretensions
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Overcoming Fear, Philosophy, Quotes, Science on December 13, 2021| 2 Comments »
Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs — in time, in space, and in potential — the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors. We gaze across billions of light-years of space to view the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, and plumb the fine structure of matter. We peer down into the core of our planet, and the blazing interior of our star. We read the genetic language in which is written the diverse skills and propensities of every being on Earth. We uncover hidden chapters in the record of our origins, and with some anguish better understand our nature and prospects. We invent and refine agriculture, without which almost all of us would starve to death. We create medicines and vaccines that save the lives of billions. We communicate at the speed of light, and whip around the Earth in an hour and a half. We have sent dozens of ships to more than seventy worlds, and four spacecraft to the stars. We are right to rejoice in our accomplishments, to be proud that our species has been able to see so far, and to judge our merit in part by the very science that has so deflated our pretensions. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | A Weary Rehearsal? |
Are You Poking Me Again? | |
2019 | At Least Mostly On Purpose |
2018 | Only One You In All Time |
2017 | Have You Hugged A Tree Lately? |
2016 | Unconquerable Imagination |
2015 | Just Plain Wrong |
2014 | Finding Beliefs |
2013 | Pretty Confident |
2012 | Effective Ranges |
2011 | Three Wisdoms |
2010 | I’m Just Askin’… |
Space & Time | |
And Fields Of Green
Posted in Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Beauty, Carl Sagan, Colors, Light, Mystery, Passion, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Sunsets on October 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Build It To Last |
Thumpin’ Bass | |
2019 | 30 Day Health / Weight Update (Oct 2019) |
When Reason Comes | |
2018 | One Of The Great Ones |
2017 | Mirror In The Oval Office |
True Courage | |
2016 | What’s Your Excuse? |
2015 | Some Meaningful Resemblance |
2014 | Bloom |
Orange October (VII) – The Giants Win The Pennant!! | |
2013 | Walking The Walk |
2012 | Legacy Of Star Trek (TOS) |
2011 | Tolerating The Intolerant |
Passionate Germs | |
2010 | Giants Win Game 1 In Philly (4 to 3)!! |
Well Within Our Power
Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Climate Change, Compassion, Destiny, History, Italian Renaissance, Meaningful Life, Philosophy, Quotes, Space, Star Stuff, Superstition on September 29, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Here we face a critical branch point in history, what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. | |
We are star stuff, which has taken its destiny into its own hands. The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter. Our own planet is only a tiny part of the vast cosmic tapestry, a starry fabric of worlds yet untold. Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours. In every one of them there’s a succession of incidents, events, occurrences, which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time, and our small planet at this moment — here we face a critical branch point in history. What we do with our world, right now will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. It is well within our power to destroy our civilization and perhaps our species as well. If we capitulate a superstition or greed or stupidity, we can plunge our world into a darkness deeper than the time between the collapse of classical civilization and the Italian Renaissance. But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet, to enhance enormously our understanding of the universe and to carry us to the stars. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | 3 November Is Coming! |
Bee Gees’ing | |
2019 | Senate Republicans: Impeachment – Because It Is Right! |
Dave’s Not Here, Man! | |
Mixing Business And Pleasure | |
2018 | Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct |
HF2: 1940’s Grapes | |
2017 | Proof Sits In The Oval Office |
2016 | Tragic Determinism |
2015 | Maybe It Should Be Clearer |
2014 | Make It Your Strength |
2013 | Four Score |
2012 | The Ruler |
2011 | Forever |
2010 | Just Cuz |
How Do You Mend A Broken Heart? | |
It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review) | |
Why Do Republicans Seek To Destroy American Democracy?
Posted in Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, tagged Aggressive Civilizations, American Democracy, Capitol Insurrection, Carl Sagan, Joint Chiefs, National Debt Ceiling, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes, Republicans on July 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »
In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. It’s their nature. They can’t help it. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
[Does anybody else remember when being a conservative Republican meant supporting the troops, law and order and an efficient, cost effective government? Now, Republicans criticize the commander of the Joint Chiefs, support insurrection in the Capitol Building and are threatening to ruin the “good faith and credit” of the United States by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Let’s recall, the current budget (which Congress agreed to) was signed by a Republican President. These are debts the Republicans ALREADY committed to owing when they passed last year’s budget. — KMAB] | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Michigan Countdown |
Risk Free | |
2019 | Speak Up / Call Out |
2018 | Does Smiling Count? |
2017 | Giving Much |
2016 | Sounds Like Class |
2015 | Inert Ideas |
2014 | Worth Anything? |
2013 | Bruises Before Bed (Or Why You Didn’t Answer) |
Revealed Riches | |
2012 | Extra Gears |
2011 | Say What? |
2010 | Hello Frogs… |
Broaden The Circle
Posted in Economics, Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Economics, Environment, H. G. Wells, Leadership, Philosophy, Power, Quotes, Science, Tribes on June 30, 2021| 3 Comments »
Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Stay Gentle |
2019 | Immoral #45 |
2018 | From My Soapbox |
2017 | The Single Most Effective Thing For Health |
2016 | A Trumpet Solo |
2015 | Potential Is A Heavy Burden |
2014 | Fear Not, Weep Not |
2013 | Half Way There |
2012 | Sacrificed Any Lately? |
2011 | The Value Of One’s Character |
2010 | Intervals |
On Being Human | |
Non-predictive Emergence | |
Events | |
Bodily Functions | |
Standing Thoughts | |
Sent Home Is Better Than Fixed | |
The Rush Is On
Posted in Environment, Philosophy, Quotes, tagged Carl Sagan, Civilization, Conquistadors, Cosmos, Earth, Humanity, Intelligence, La Pérouse, Philosophy, Quotes, Self-Destruction on June 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Unlike the La Pérouse expedition the Conquistadors sought not knowledge but Gold. They used their superior weapons to loot and murder, in their madness they obliterated a civilization. In the name of piety, in a mockery of their religion, the Spaniards utterly destroyed a society with an Art, Astronomy and Architecture the equal of anything in Europe. We revile the Conquistadors for their cruelty and shortsightedness, for choosing death. We admire La Pérouse and the Tlingit for their courage and wisdom, for choosing life. The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew we’re children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure on this planet we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage, propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we’ve also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience and a great soaring passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the Cosmos an inescapable perspective awaits. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our Earth as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and the citadel of the stars. There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably headlong into self-destruction. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | It Is Still About Sharing And Cheering |
2019 | Sounds Like #LyingDonald |
2018 | Start Building |
2017 | Woof! Woof! |
2016 | Cast Out |
2015 | Small Pieces |
Happy Father’s Day! | |
2014 | Uncertain Work |
2013 | Unpatriotic And Servile |
2012 | What Price Freedom? |
2011 | Particular Importance |
Three From Bette… | |
Are We Getting Close To Uncertainty?
Posted in Environment, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Intelligence, Natural Selection, Quotes, Self-Destruction, Species, Technology on June 6, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Once intelligent beings achieve technology and the capacity for self-destruction of their species, the selective advantage of intelligence becomes more uncertain. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Two Loves |
A Short Count | |
2019 | Don’t Forget: Fire Burns |
2018 | Especially In The Middle East |
2017 | A Good Local |
2016 | Life Unlimited |
2015 | Still Trying |
2014 | Destiny, n. |
2013 | No Apologies |
2012 | Utterly Convinced |
2011 | A Key To Effectiveness |
Maybe “Creation” Wasn’t That Difficult After All
Posted in Faith, Humor, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Creation, Exception, Faith, Humor, Nothing, Philosophy, Quotes, Science, Something on June 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I stress that the universe is made mostly of nothing, that something is the exception. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | #45: Time Is Ticking Away |
#45 Claims COVID-19 Defeated To Open The Economy | |
2019 | Belief Buffet |
2018 | Change Is Law |
2017 | A Dog Day Of Summer |
2016 | Chances Are |
2015 | Truer Spoken |
2014 | Not Quite There Yet (Either) |
Many Colors | |
2013 | Distance, n. |
Less Can Be More | |
2012 | Rise Up! |
The Gift | |
2011 | Artful Courage |
2010 | A Handful of Lessons… |
Appreciating Intricacy
Posted in Education, Faith, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Faith, God, Intricacy, Philosophy, Quotes, Understanding on May 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »
If a Creator God exists, would He or She or It… 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? | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Insensitive To Silence |
Weaker, Sicker And Poorer | |
2019 | Don’t Be Small |
2018 | Persistence |
2017 | Are You A Loser? |
2016 | Constitution And Conscience |
2015 | Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned |
2014 | Something Worth Making |
2013 | Absolutely |
2012 | Can Do |
2011 | Wise Criticism |
Re-institute The Wall Between Church And State
Posted in Faith, Philosophy, Quotes, Science and Learning, tagged Carl Sagan, Philosophy, Quotes, Religion, Science on May 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Both borderline science and many religions are motivated in part by a serious concern about the nature of the universe and our role in it, and for this reason merit our consideration and regard. In addition, I think it possible that many religions involve at their cores an attempt to come to grips with profound mysteries of our individual life histories, as described in the last chapter. But both in borderline science and in organized religion there is much that is specious or dangerous. While the practitioners of such doctrines often wish there were no criticisms to which they are expected to reply, skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense. | |
— Carl Sagan | |
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On This Day In: | |
2020 | Early Knowledge |
Seen Any Messages Lately? | |
2019 | I Don’t Think We’ll Be Serving Them Cake |
2018 | New And Old |
2017 | Ever |
2016 | At The Center |
2015 | True Value In Life |
2014 | A Potential To Be Concerned |
2013 | Fine No More |
2012 | Have You Checked Your Height Lately? |
2011 | Are You Convinced? |