Here are a few of my favourite quotes by the late great American astronomer, Carl Sagan (1934-1996).


"Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have stayed home"
Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot


"The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it with its skeptical protocols is the pathway to a dark age"
-- Carl Sagan

"For years I've been stressing with regard to UFOs that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence"
-- Carl Sagan, quoted from Billions and Billions, chapter 5 ("Four Cosmic Questions"), page 49

"If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote.... Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy"-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, page 204