Carl Sagan Quotes

An answer is invariably the parent of a whole family of new questions.

Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.

One of the greatest joys known to man is to take a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge.

Science is exploration. The fundamental nature of exploration is that we don't know what's there. We can guess and hope and aim to find out certain things, but we have to expect surprises.

I think I have sort of gravitated toward issues that I don't know the answers to, because that's what's more interesting for me to write.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.

Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'... I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions. I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out.

I've always wanted to answer all the questions that nature posed for us.

We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge.

Maybe it is worth investigating the unknown, if only because the very feeling of not knowing is a painful one.

Going after the unknown is always fascinating, I think. It becomes part of your life, this desire to know.

If there wasn't mystery, people wouldn't have anything to ponder. If you already knew everything, you wouldn't have anything to think about and life would just be really boring.

I am really more interested in questions than in giving answers.

Science and literature give me answers. And they ask me questions I will never be able to answer.

You can only maintain your interest if you're travelling more in ignorance than knowledge.

The more knowledge you get, the more questions you ask. The smarter you get, the more you realize that everything can be possible.

One can never know enough. The unknown and its call lies even in what we know.

What you don't know intrigues you more than what you do know.

What you know is always a little less attractive to you than what you don't know.

An unknown must be recognized as being unknown in order to be explored.

If we don’t go, we don’t know.

We sort of think that science is about the known, but science is really about exploring the unknown.

I'll never know everything. My life would be a lot worse if there was nothing I knew the answers about - and if there was nothing I didn't know the answers about.

Every single day, I'm curious about everything. Curiosity is finding answers to things.