It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas . . . If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you . . . On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.
Carl Sagan
Related It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sk... CARL SAGAN At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an op... CARL SAGAN The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And... CARL SAGAN Friendship is a double-edged sword one side it can be great and true but the other side it spells be... GARY F EVANS... The love you get, is equal to the love you give. BEN OAK I like to open for a band as it brings on sort of a challenge and it makes things more interesting. ... KELLY JONES If all the ideas you dream up are being executed on then you don't have many ideas. SAULT COLT Food Allergies Are Not Due to Food, Rather Are Due to the Constant Contamination of That Food That Y... THEHEALTHFOODGURU Find people that are great and learn from them, be selfless with all of the great knowledge that you... JOE LARKIN What counts, in the long run, is not what you read; it is what you sift through your own mind; it is... ELEANOR ROOSEVELT How should I know?" said Alice, surprised at her own courage. "It's no business of mine." The Q... LEWIS CARROLL These are ideas. I could say that they just came to me, but it would be more accurate to say that I ... DAVE SIM The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what... HENRY FORD (In reply to the question, 'Would you like some suggestions for a plot for your next book?') PATRICIA C. WREDE The unfortunate thing is that, sometimes, we slip, but, fortunately, consciously or unconsciously, w... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH If you cannot be open-minded, then you do not possess your ideas, your ideas possess you. BRYANT MCGILL You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only... NEIL GAIMAN Most seismologists are surprised, and frequently skeptical, that you can predict the magnitude of an... RICHARD ALLEN The more closed your network, the more you hear the same ideas over and again, reaffirming what you ... WHITNEY JOHNSON Empathy is the new measurement of everything. It doesn't matter what religion you have, what God you... C. JOYBELL C. Beauty is the light within. Only when you see the light within yourself will others see it in you. F. JOHNSON In other words, Theology is practical: especially now. In the old days, when there was les... C.S. LEWIS It seems to me that the years between eighteen and twenty-eight are the hardest, psychologically. It... HELEN MIRREN You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only... NEIL GAIMAN May I never neither turn left nor turn right in my journey of life, but may I go straight to Christ ... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Wake every morning with the same feeling. Live up high and fly on top of the ceiling. I just know th... ANA CLAUDIA ANTUNES Have the courage to do what you're not ready to do. RICHIE NORTON Ideas and philosophies have a shelf-life. They must be kept fresh and renewed or they will spoil. If... STEVE MARABOLI At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you'll have to find the inner mo... BILL WATTERSON There is no longer a single idea explaining everything, but an infinite number of essences giving a ... ALBERT CAMUS If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each... GEORGE BERNARD SHAW Most businesspeople are properly skeptical of government programs labeled 'streamlined,' ... I'm ske... PATRICK ANDERSON New ideas should confront old ideas. We must refer to the example of Europe. People have fought to m... TAHAR BEN JELLOUN I used to worry that I had a finite supply of ideas, that I should hold on to each of them in case i... RYAN NORTH You release the pain of the past and press on. It's a new day, and God is doing a new thing. He want... CRAIG GROESCHEL Be kind. We never know what people are going through. Give grace and mercy because one day your circ... GERMANY KENT Logically, if you grow up here and you are open minded, you go to college and never come back. If yo... G. P. CHING At school, new ideas are thrust at you every day. Out in the world, you'll have to find your inner m... BILL WATTERSON If your desire is for people to be comfortable with your ideas,then you are a person without ideas. DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Time determines the occurrence of possibilities and impossibilities, but God determines the time for... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Congealed thinking is the forerunner of failure... make sure you are always receptive to new ideas. GEORGE CRANE Sometimes you have to be a diva. All the artists I admire from Madonna to Whitney to Mariah have all... JESSIE J What happens to people like myself, who have been involved with computing for a long time, is that y... ELLEN ULLMAN What I'm saying is individuals have better ideas if they're connected to rich, diverse netwo... STEVEN JOHNSON If we all look at life we think how nice, then we look at death and everybody goes oh you can say th... GARY F EVANS... It is as simple as that. Birds fly because they have wings and so when you can’t grow the wings, y... ISRAELMORE AYIVOR While it is quite reasonable for scientists to be skeptical of new ideas that do not fit within the ... STANLEY B. PRUSINER Congratulations, to the people which made gotham series, still need some more and extra work! DEYTH BANGER To have the cognitive abilities to do research and development is vital to a forever expanding world... GARY F EVANS... The first and foremost human right or fundamental right is the right to exist. APURVA GAGLANI If we ever put research into what the subconscious is we could probably come to the conclusion that ... GARY F EVANS... i know im not the girl you wanted. not the one you want to hear from. but what you see is what you g... SIMI GREWAL I think that many people will intentionally overlook all of the lifeless facts about their relations... C. JOYBELL C. Imagine if it happened to you: All of a sudden you find this thing on your wrist and people are tell... YANCY BUTLER And as you come to know Him, you're becoming like Him. The more you are like Him, the more different... CRAIG GROESCHEL It is an exciting time where the only limits you have are the size of your ideas and the degree of y... SOURCE UNKNOWN You are the architect of your life. LAILAH GIFTY AKITA Do you know great people are continually quoted while the average always misquote great people? ONYI ANYADO You need time and a forum to find out [the marketing staff's] philosophy and needs. You can get that... LARRY DEUTSCH There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the apertu... DR. CARL SAGAN Folks seem to confuse what science is all about; it's a methodology of discovery to explain how thin... DAVID MAJOR The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense ... CARL SAGAN ... But these skeptics are only selectively skeptical. They think themselves enlightened for resisti... KEN ILGUNAS That's the whole point of the retro thing, I think. The harder you try to push it, the more skeptica... ERIC SHEPARD If you are any competent musician, if you have creative ideas, ideas of songs, of arrangements, in a... BILL WYMAN Most new ideas come to us not through pure logic, but through a fusion of memory and imagination. If... KILROY J. OLDSTER Don't waste your tremendous voice writing messages in the sand. LORIN MORGAN-RICHARDS Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it?... ERNEST HEMINGWAY As a journalist, you have to have multiple sources and verifiable science, and when you've done ... JOSH FOX Tell your story to the universe and Let your actions speak LOVE.' No matter what it is. NAPZ CHERUB PELLAZO Can I buy you a drink when you get off?" "I don't drink. Alcohol is bad for my legs." ERIC JEROME DICKEY What will make you a star is in you SOTONYE ANGA The new opportunity is to think all day, patent a bunch of quasi-innovative ideas, and then wait a f... DEREK KERTON If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if... JOHN CLEESE Never get to the point where you cannot see anything good about yourself SOTONYE ANGA You are not condemned for anything, but you are also not excused from anything. See these two ideas ... VERNON HOWARD If you are someone who dislikes, condemns and rejects new ideas, you aren’t fit to lead. ISRAELMORE AYIVOR To discern the Zeitgeist you need to read widely. You need to systematically scan all possible sourc... ABHISHEK RATNA If you are still afraid of new ideas, know that your fears will come to pass SUNDAY ADELAJA If someone you know gets sick from taking a flu shot, you will be less likely to get one even if it ... DAVID MCRANEY What is it that makes you so angry, bothers you so deeply, that you're compelled to act? CRAIG GROESCHEL In life the only things that you see are things that you are projecting, and life presents you with ... OSHO Even when you do nothing, you are doing something. Be aware of your decisions and what they mean for... ARMAND MEVIS There are only two questions to ask about food. Is it good? And is it authentic? We are open to new ... GIULIANO BUGIALLI Moving with New Ideas - We live with many old ideas keeping a less space for new thoughts and ideas ... DR.T.V.RAO MD I feel as though, if I were to extend my hand just a little toward the pool where the ideas ferment,... EMILIE AUTUMN Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through yo... GERMANY KENT Top 10 Creative Rules of Thumb: 1. The best way to get great ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw... CHARLES CHIC THOMPSON Top 10 Creative Rules of Thumb: 1. The best way to get great ideas is to get lots of ideas and throw... CHALRES CHIC THOMPSON By doing, you become employable. It doesn't matter what the job is; by working, you learn new th... KATE REARDON In the journey of life, certain paths may seem to be leading nowhere because of a mountain or hill o... ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH In a day and age where it seems like women want to be with unstable, psychotic, manipulative freaks;... C. JOYBELL C. If Washington, D.C., is not going to think big, if they're not going bring us any grand new ideas on... BRIAN SCHWEITZER All that the spider needs to complete its web is step taking ERNEST AGYEMANG YEBOAH Now is everything Now is the essence Now is the focus Focus on the now For that ... KAREN HACKEL A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. ... LAWRENCE LESSIG The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas... EDWARD DE BONO Everyone is an entrepreneur. The only skills you need to be an entrepreneur: an ability to fail, an ... JAMES ALTUCHER You are not a bad person because you are gay. You are you because you are you and you were meant to ... TEGAN QUIN If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure y... JOHN PERRY BARLOW
More Carl Sagan
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CARL SAGAN When you're in love, you want to tell the world. My lifelong love affair with science CARL SAGAN Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get ... CARL SAGAN I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready for it, or because it arose only ... CARL SAGAN Christianity may be good and Satanism evil. Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This ... CARL SAGAN But I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anyt... CARL SAGAN Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world. CARL SAGAN One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its... CARL SAGAN In the way that scepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to ... CARL SAGAN I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem ye... CARL SAGAN Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fir... CARL SAGAN I find many adults are put off when young children pose scientific questions. Why is the Moon round?... CARL SAGAN There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate ... CARL SAGAN There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any. CARL SAGAN We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and... CARL SAGAN The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Je... CARL SAGAN If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in ... CARL SAGAN Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly o... CARL SAGAN An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinizing what we mainly present to our child... CARL SAGAN The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense ... CARL SAGAN But nature is always more subtle, more intricate, more elegant than what we are able to imagine. CARL SAGAN Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wis... CARL SAGAN I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States... CARL SAGAN We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and te... CARL SAGAN We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a pre... CARL SAGAN We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows a... CARL SAGAN The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. CARL SAGAN The boundary between space and the earth is purely arbitrary. And I'll probably always be intere... CARL SAGAN If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. CARL SAGAN Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how ... CARL SAGAN For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love. CARL SAGAN The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. CARL SAGAN The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matc... CARL SAGAN Some information is classified legitimately; as with military hardware, secrecy sometimes really is ... CARL SAGAN Understanding is a kind of ecstasy CARL SAGAN You probably don't need more weapons than what's required to destroy every city on earth. Th... CARL SAGAN The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may... CARL SAGAN Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever t... CARL SAGAN Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. CARL SAGAN The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps pr... CARL SAGAN What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on whic... CARL SAGAN You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on ... CARL SAGAN It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fift... CARL SAGAN You have to know the past to understand the present. CARL SAGAN We are star stuff harvesting sunlight. CARL SAGAN Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envisio... CARL SAGAN In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my positio... CARL SAGAN A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity... CARL SAGAN Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowe... CARL SAGAN One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years.... CARL SAGAN It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fif... CARL SAGAN In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bil... CARL SAGAN If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe... CARL SAGAN We are the representatives of the cosmos; we are an example of what hydrogen atoms can do, given 15 ... CARL SAGAN Are we an exceptionally unlikely accident or is the universe brimming over with intelligence? (It's)... CARL SAGAN When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - ... CARL SAGAN We start out a million years ago in a small community on some grassy plain; we hunt animals, have ch... CARL SAGAN Black holes may be apertures to elsewhen. Were we to plunge down a black hole, we would re-emerge, i... CARL SAGAN It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out. CARL SAGAN The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all ... CARL SAGAN I don't want to believe. I want to know. CARL SAGAN In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my positio... CARL SAGAN You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such... CARL SAGAN I've written a number of books that have to do with the evolution of humans, human intelligence,... CARL SAGAN Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us ... CARL SAGAN The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from ... CARL SAGAN The significance of our lives and our fragile planet is then determined only by our own wisdom and c... CARL SAGAN The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars. CARL SAGAN The near side of a galaxy is tens of thousands of light-years closer to us than the far side; thus w... CARL SAGAN [When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 ... CARL SAGAN I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering ... CARL SAGAN It is said that men may not be the dreams of the Gods, but rather that the Gods are the dreams of me... CARL SAGAN The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us ... CARL SAGAN The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ours... CARL SAGAN Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Ta... CARL SAGAN We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am... CARL SAGAN We have swept through all of the planets in the solar system, from Mercury to Neptune, in a historic... CARL SAGAN The visions we offer our children shape the future. It _matters_ what those visions are. Often they ... CARL SAGAN We tend to hear much more about the splendors returned than the ships that brought them or the shipw... CARL SAGAN For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Ri... CARL SAGAN Cutting off fundamental, curiosity-driven science is like eating the seed corn. We may have a little... CARL SAGAN Let's see if I got this right," she would say to herself. "I've taken an inert gas that's in the air... CARL SAGAN Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever valu... CARL SAGAN I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promi... CARL SAGAN But, Jefferson worried that the people - and the argument goes back to Thucydides and Aristotle - ar... CARL SAGAN Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for res... CARL SAGAN At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an op... CARL SAGAN An atheist is someone who is certain that God doesn't exist, someone who has compelling evidence aga... CARL SAGAN Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is ... CARL SAGAN Those at too great a distance may, I am well are, mistake ignorance for perspective. CARL SAGAN It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sk... CARL SAGAN Once we lose our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Univer... CARL SAGAN To live in the hearts we leave behind is to live forever. CARL SAGAN As science advances, there seems to be less and less for God to do. It's a big universe, of course, ... CARL SAGAN We have examined the universe in space and seen that we live on a mote of dust circling a humdrum st... CARL SAGAN It is said that men may not be the dreams of the god, but rather that the gods are the dreams of men... CARL SAGAN If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world ... CARL SAGAN Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid ... CARL SAGAN Observation: I can't see a thing. Conclusion: Dinosaurs. CARL SAGAN We are star stuff which has taken its destiny into its own hands. CARL SAGAN Atoms are mainly empty space. Matter is composed chiefly of nothing. CARL SAGAN We inhabit a universe where atoms are made in the centers of stars; where each second a thousand sun... CARL SAGAN You are worth about 3 dollars worth in chemicals. CARL SAGAN Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soi... CARL SAGAN The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what... CARL SAGAN One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands... CARL SAGAN Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic. CARL SAGAN The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immen... CARL SAGAN If I finish a book a week, I will read only a few thousand books in my lifetime, about a tenth of a ... CARL SAGAN Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered lo... CARL SAGAN The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. CARL SAGAN we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers CARL SAGAN We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. CARL SAGAN