Carl Sagan

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

"I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students."

"If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?"

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

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

"It's been said that astronomy is a humbling and, I might add, a character-building experience."

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense."

"The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be interested in this planet - it's my favorite."

"Today, we're still loaded down - and, to some extent, embarrassed - by ancient myths, but we respect them as part of the same impulse that has led to the modern, scientific kind of myth. But we now have the opportunity to discover, for the first time, the way the universe is in fact constructed as opposed to how we would wish it to be constructed."

"We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."

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

"We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology."

"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."