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There is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thought and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. There’s no wild cows.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Buy Food Human Store Wild Yourself
Somehow it’s O.K. for people to chuckle about not being good at math. Yet if I said, ‘I never learned to read,’ they’d say I was an illiterate dolt.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Goodness Literature Mathematics Myself People Reading
You don’t want to raise a kid in a culture where the kid who asks the most questions is annoying. You want a culture where the kid who asks the most questions gets awards and gets another piece of cake.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Annoy Change Children Culture Food Pieces Question Reward Rise Yourself
If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Affect Belief Decision People Reality System Yourself
To learn more about science, turn off your electronic device and go outside and look around a bit. Nature is calling you. Go on. The internet will still be here.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Device Internet Learning Science
It’s better to understand something than to memorize something.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Better Choice Remember Understand
We live in a world where not everyone has the urge to help others. It is OK to encourage others to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, but if you do, just remember that some people have no boots.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Encouragement Live Need People World
I object to religion in science classrooms not because it’s religion but because it’s not science.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Class Myself Object Religion Room Science
We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Biology Connection Deep Each Other Earth Science Universe
Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. You cannot build a program of discovery on the assumption that nobody is smart enough to figure out the answer to a problem.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Build Discover Philosophy Problem Program Science Smart
What I’m saying is, when different experiments give you the same result, it is no longer subject to your opinion. That’s the good thing about science: It’s true whether or not you believe in it. That’s why it works.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Believe Different Experiment Result True Work Yourself
If we have the power to turn another planet into Earth, then we have the power to turn Earth back into Earth.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Earth Inspirational Motivational Planet Power
Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Fools Science Way Yourself
Facts are true whether or not you believe them.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Believe Fact True Yourself
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Drive Philosophy Suffering Surprise World Yourself
Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what’s really there.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Close Pretend Reality
The universe is almost 14 billion years old, and, wow! Life had no problem starting here on Earth! I think it would be inexcusably egocentric of us to suggest that we’re alone in the universe.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Earth Old Thinking Universe
I dream of a world where the truth is what shapes people’s politics, rather than politics shaping what people think is true.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Dreams People Politics Thinking True Truth World
I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Alien Close Earth Examination Fact Human Intelligence Life
As areas of knowledge grow, so too do the perimeters of ignorance.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Area Ignorance Knowledge
If you’re really successful at bullshitting, it means you’re not hanging around enough people smarter than you.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Enough People Smart Success Yourself
Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Cure Humanity Ignorance Reason Start Virus
After 50 years of television, there’s no other conclusion the aliens could draw, but that most humans are neurotic, death-hungry, dysfunctional idiots.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Alien Death Human Hungry Idiot
In the end, it’s the people who are curious who change the world.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Change Curiosity End People World
You can’t have people making decisions about the future of the world who are scientifically illiterate. That’s a recipe for disaster. And I don’t mean just whether a politician is scientifically literate, but people who vote politicians into office.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Decision Disaster Future Literature Office People Politics Recipe Vote
God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that’s getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

God Ignorance Move Science Small Time
Curious that we spend more time congratulating people who have succeeded than encouraging people who have not.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON

Congratulation Curiosity People Success Time

There is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thought and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance.

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There is no shame in not knowing. The problem arises when irrational thought and attendant behavior fill the vacuum left by ignorance.

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Popular Authors

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