Carl Sagan Death Day 2016: Quotes From Astronomer On The Anniversary Of His Death

Famed astronomer Carl Sagan frequently reminded people the universe, in spite of humankind’s propensity to believe that everything revolves in some way around the unfolding dramas of the day, isn’t really about them. The world itself is a small blip of life in an otherwise vast expanse of space and matter that holds more mysteries to man than likely are ever to be understood totally. For all humans know, they’re not even the only living beings in that universe, he noted.

Sagan died 20 years ago this Tuesday after a whirlwind of a career in which he made a name for himself as someone who could explain the magnificence of space in a way no one else could. While his enthusiasm for the subject made him a celebrity of sorts, Sagan pursued a career with multiple facets: He worked on NASA robotics missions, he edited the science journal “Icarus,” he was an astronomy professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and he hosted the TV show “Cosmos” on PBS.

Sagan left behind more than a few memorable sayings:

• “The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.”
• “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”
• “The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.”
• “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
• “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.”
• “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.”
• “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
• “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
• “We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.”
• “Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.”