Bill Nye Quotes

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.

You have not fully expressed your power as a voter until you have scientific literacy in topics that matter for future political issues.

The way you get democracy to function is by informing the public.

Democracy in the contemporary world demands, among other things, an educated and informed people.

You have people who believe they are scientifically literate but, in fact, are not. And I don't mind if you're not scientifically literate, but just admit that to yourself, so that you'll know, and perhaps you can take a first step to try to eradicate that.

No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.

Widespread public access to knowledge, like public education, is one of the pillars of our democracy, a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

Lack of scientific fundamentals causes people to make foolish decisions about issues such as the toxicity of chemicals, the efficacy of medicines, the changes in the global climate. Our single greatest defense against scientific ignorance is education, and early in the life of every scientist, the child's first interest was sparked by a teacher.

People are interested in science, but they don't always know they're interested in science, and so I try to find a way to get them interested.

Without an educated populace, democracy cannot sustain itself.

As citizens we have to be more thoughtful and more educated and more informed. I turn on the TV and I see these grown people screaming at each other, and I think, well, if we don't get our civility back, we're in trouble.

The people who work in the scientific field, they need help to convey what it's about.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

We know Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin as politicians, but they felt that science was something everyone should have a knowledge of.

We don’t need 1 million nuclear scientists, but we do need 100 million citizens who are knowledgeable about how science affects their lives.

A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or perhaps both ... And a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives.

The need for general scientific understanding by the public has never been larger, and the penalty for scientific illiteracy never harsher… Lack of scientific fundamentals causes people to make foolish decisions about issues such as the toxicity of chemicals, the efficacy of medicines, the changes in the global climate.

Scientific concepts sometimes elude the vast majority of elected officials.

The vitality of democracy depends on popular knowledge of complex questions.

I would like people to appreciate science in the same way they appreciate the arts.

Even if politicians spew confusing, convoluted jargon, these people are still meant to represent me, and the only way that happens is if I stay informed and vote.

Americans are good people, and at times we can be wise. But we're often under-informed by media, misinformed by our government and ill-served by both.

We can't have an intelligent foreign policy unless we have an intelligent public, because we're a democracy.

It is my idea that the public needs to be better educated about the nature of scientific inquiry and how the scientific process works. I firmly believe that this is the only effective way forward to combat the widespread distrust in facts and science.