Carl Sagan Quotes

Galileo called doubt the father of invention; it is certainly the pioneer.

We are the recipients of scientific method. We can each be a creative and active part of it if we so desire.

If people like Edison had waited to make every - or Ben Franklin or some of those people had waited to solve every problem on Earth before they did their research or before they were curious about doing something new, we'd never have made a lot of the progress we have.

Well, it seems to me a scientist has need for both vision and confidence.

Investing in science education and curiosity-driven research is investing in the future.

Scientists are always skeptics.

We don't ask research to do what it was never meant to do, and that is to get an idea.

The most wonderful discovery made by scientists is science itself.

I think that's something a scientist can do because a scientist works at a border, at the edge of science, at the edge of knowledge, and so there's a lot of fun of reaching out and thinking about things that other people didn't think about. And so it has a kind of exploratory notion, kind of adventurous part in it.

Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.

A great scientist is more open to a new idea than almost anybody.

The progress of science is tremendously disorderly, and the motivations that lead to this progress are tremendously varied.

I think you have to be creative to make a difference in science.

The only way we can fly planes and use computers is because people were curious about their world and also skeptical about the things they were told to be immutable, so they figured out other ways of doing things.

I am a firm believer, that without speculation there is no good and original observation.

All human progress is preceded by new questions

All great discoveries...are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents.

To search for unasked questions, plus questions to put to already acquired but unsought answers, it is vital to give full play to the imagination. That is the way to create truly original science.

A questioning mind is the most cherished resource man has and the rarest.

The routine of custom tends to deaden even scientific inquiry; it stands in the way of discovery and of the active scientific worker. For discovery and inquiry are synonymous as an occupation. Science is a pursuit, not a coming into possession of the immutable; new theories as points of view are more prized than discoveries that quantitatively increase the store on hand.

There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.

Science isn't about WHY, it's about WHY NOT!

The first time you do something, it's science. The second time, it's engineering. The third time, it's just being a technician. I'm a scientist. Once I do something, I want to do something else.

I'm interested in new worlds, new universes, new challenges. I always said the only reason to make a film is not for the result but for what you learn for the next one.