"At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits and those who have signally failed in gaining recognition among their fellows, are endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by delivering weak and vapid lectures upon the 'harmony o"

"Science built the Academy, superstition the inquisition"

"[Alexander von Humboldt was the] greatest scientific traveller who ever lived."

"A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone."

"Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science."

"We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe, to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act."

"We know we cannot be kind to animals until we stop exploiting them -- exploiting animals in the name of science, exploiting animals in the name of sport, exploiting animals in the name of fashion, and yes, exploiting animals in the name of food."

"The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions."

"Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles; he can only discover them."

"There are as many atoms in one molecule of DNA as there are stars in a typical galaxy."

"Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being."

"Science is only a Latin word for knowledge"

"The immense distances to the stars and the galaxies mean that we see everything ins pace int he past, some as they were before the Earth came to be. Telescopes are time machines."

"By looking far out into space we are also looking far back into time, back toward the horizon of the universe, back toward the epoch of the Big Bang."

"Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense."

"Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist, and then we beat it out of them. A few trickle through the system with their wonder and enthusiasm for science intact."

"And you are made of a hundred trillion cells. We are, each of us, a multitude."

"It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science."

"A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars. Every star may be a sun to someone."

"I would suggest that science is, at least in my part, informed worship."

"If we are merely matter intricately assembled, is this really demeaning? If there's nothing here but atoms, does that make us less or does that make matter more?"

"Not explaining science seems to me perverse. When you're in love, you want to tell the world."

"In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie. [Dedication to Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, in Cosmos]"

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology."