Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - Carl Sagan

"Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?"

"[When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996:]If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion, why do you not believe in materialistic science, which has an unparalleled record of fulfilled prophecy? Consider, for example, eclipses."

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

"We are star stuff harvesting sunlight."

"A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism."