Six months later everyone on their planet will be staying up till four in the morning mumbling "All I need is a straight one. Just one." and we'll have infested the cosmos like fire ants.
More of a paragraph, but this is some great stuff.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
There is also a video of him reading it on YouTube.
Ah, Carl Sagan. Gave me shivers, first time I heard that quote online, in a good way.
Here's some Pratchett:
"When Mister Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend." - Detritus learns about weapons safety (Terry Pratchett, Night Watch)
Too many people, when listing all the perils to be found in the search for lost treasure or ancient wisdom, had forgotten to put at the top of the list 'the man who arrived just before you'. - (Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero)
Thunder rolled. ... It rolled a six. - (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)
"Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it." -Mark Twain
"I'm not superstitious... knock on wood for that." -Something I'm fond of saying
"I want to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to tell the difference." - Yes, I know this comes from a prayer, but hey, it's still pretty good advice.
"When Hitler rose to power there were a lot of people who just stopped playing, you know who those people were? The French. Are you French Clive?" Cartman - South Park
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those with zombie plans and those without, we like to call them dinner." Red Vs Blue - Zombie Special
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana
"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." Stalin
"Basically, It's a case of Tab A goes in Slot B, C, or D. But at your age, I'm guessing your more interested with breaking in Tab A." - My father, giving me "The Talk"
"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing" - Oscar Wilde
"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me? I think it is rather vain." - Oscar Wilde
"The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there." - Betty Grable
"It's a good thing we changed our name from 'Borgia' when we moved to this country!" - mom
I love quotes, musings, observations, and witty sayings.
Jane Austen Quotes: "Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong? " "I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them." "One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy." "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" "I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive." "How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!"
Oscar Wilde Quotes: "People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately." "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life." "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." "Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it." "Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." "I can resist everything except temptation." "I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly." "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." "It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information." "The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years." "Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed." "The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life." "To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone." "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." "Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die." "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." "Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast." "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." "Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." "I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes: "The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman." "Women's degradation is in man's idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth that I have uttered." "The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man."
Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes: "When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die." "A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water." "When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" "It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself." "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Comments
-Me
- Thomas Paine
One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.
- Thomas Paine
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
There is also a video of him reading it on YouTube.
Here's some Pratchett:
"When Mister Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend."
- Detritus learns about weapons safety (Terry Pratchett, Night Watch)
Too many people, when listing all the perils to be found in the search for lost treasure or ancient wisdom, had forgotten to put at the top of the list 'the man who arrived just before you'.
- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Hero)
Thunder rolled. ... It rolled a six.
- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)
"I'm not superstitious... knock on wood for that." -Something I'm fond of saying
"I want to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to tell the difference." - Yes, I know this comes from a prayer, but hey, it's still pretty good advice.
Cartman - South Park
"There are two kinds of people in this world, those with zombie plans and those without, we like to call them dinner."
Red Vs Blue - Zombie Special
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
George Santayana
"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
Stalin
"You keep dissin' me, I'm a stop followin' you round - Who gonna watch yo' ass then, motherfucka?" -Ninja Ninja, Afro Samurai
"Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow."- The Third Doctor
-Peter Venkman
- Oscar Wilde
"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me? I think it is rather vain."
- Oscar Wilde
"The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there."
- Betty Grable
"It's a good thing we changed our name from 'Borgia' when we moved to this country!"
- mom
Jane Austen Quotes:
"Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong? "
"I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."
"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy."
"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"
"I will not say that your mulberry-trees are dead, but I am afraid they are not alive."
"How horrible it is to have so many people killed! And what a blessing that one cares for none of them!"
Oscar Wilde Quotes:
"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately."
"Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life."
"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."
"Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it."
"Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived."
"I can resist everything except temptation."
"I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly."
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information."
"The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years."
"Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed."
"The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life."
"To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness."
"Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone."
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
"Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die."
"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."
"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."
"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."
"I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse."
Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes:
"The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman."
"Women's degradation is in man's idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth that I have uttered."
"The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way. The negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the white Saxon man."
Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes:
"When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die."
"A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water."
"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"
"It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself."
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
"I commend my soul to any god that can find it." -Terry Pratchett (from Going Postal)
"And just what does he mean by that?"
-allegedly Klemens Von Metternich, upon learning that Talleyrand had died