Neil deGrasse
Neil deGrasse
depressing thinking perspective
Those who see the cosmic perspective as a depressing outlook, they really need to reassess how they think about the world. Because when I look up in the universe, I know I'm small but I'm also big. I'm big because I'm connected to the universe, and the universe is connected to me.
creativity people way
Rational thoughts never drive people's creativity the way emotions do.
luxury enlightenment needs
Society needs to see science not as a luxury of funding but as a fundamental activity that drives enlightenment, economics, and security.
army battle needs
You will never find scientists leading armies into battle. You just won’t. Especially not astrophysicists -we see the biggest picture there is. We understand how small we are in the cosmos. We understand how fragile and temporary our existence is here on Earth. We understand there are bigger problems we need to solve as a species than what God you pray to.
reality imagination cosmos
Imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine
believe charlatans
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.
thinking order skills
I think science has a better story to tell than anyone else has been able to tell and that's because it's based on the rigorous winnowing that science and scientists are always doing in order to find out what's really happening. I think it's really good to encourage generally our ability to tell stories and that's a great skill that we come by naturally, so I'm excited about that.
information
All information is good, even when it is bad.
ignorance vaccines intellectual
Scientific literacy is an intellectual vaccine against the claims of charlatans who would exploit ignorance.
disappointment special-you space
If your ego starts out, 'I am important, I am big, I am special,' you're in for some disappointments when you look around at what we've discovered about the universe. No, you're not big. No, you're not. You're small in time and in space. And you have this frail vessel called the human body that's limited on Earth.
explorers humans decades
The greatest explorer of recent decades is not even human.
thinking america people
In America, there are people who don't read science fiction but still think about tomorrow, so it's not only the force of science-fiction that makes you a tomorrow thinker.
artist sky needs
I want and need the artist to take me to new places, and the new place that Van Gogh took me not the sky as it is but the sky as he felt it. And the more of us that feel the universe, the better off we will be in this world.
math air venus
On Venus you could cook a 16-inch pepperoni pizza in seven seconds, just by holding it out to the air. (Yes, I did the math.)