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Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.

Carl Sagan

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.
CARL SAGAN

desperatel Determination Preference Prejudice Puzzle True Truth Want Work
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
CARL SAGAN

Hostile Indifference Universe
We all have a thirst for wonder. It’s a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it.
CARL SAGAN

Bound Human Quality Religion Science Thirist Wonder
What an astonishing thing a book is.
CARL SAGAN

Astonish Book One Liner
Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.
CARL SAGAN

Ash Rise Science Stars
Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.
CARL SAGAN

Book Century Flower Lie Promise Seed Soil
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
CARL SAGAN

Absence Evidence One Liner
Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.
CARL SAGAN

Depth Different Giving Involvement Love Number Perhaps Relationship
Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.
CARL SAGAN

Book Break Human Magic Proof Time Work
Arguments from authority carry little weight, authorities have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
CARL SAGAN

Argument Authority Expert Future Mistake Past Weight
Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course.
CARL SAGAN

Attempt Course Ourselves Safe Science Success Understand World
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
CARL SAGAN

Exception Exrinction Rule Survival
I’ve always thought an agnostic is an atheist without the courage of his convictions.
CARL SAGAN

Atheist Conviction Courage
Our ancestors lived out of doors. They were as familiar with the night sky as most of us are with our favorite television programs.
CARL SAGAN

Ancestor Door Family Favourite Live Night Program Sky Television
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
CARL SAGAN

Creature Love Vast
The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.
CARL SAGAN

Beach Earth Grain Number Planet Sand Science Stars Universe

Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.

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Stars are phoenixes, rising from their own ashes.

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