Carl Sagan Civilization Quotations

We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology.

Any civilization that doesn't develop space travel dies.

For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday, but there's no support for this appealing idea. The extraordinary claims are not supported by extraordinary evidence.

In the vastness of the Cosmos there must be other civilizations far older and more advanced than ours.

I would be very ashamed of my civilization if we did not try to find out if there is life in outer space.

What a splendid perspective contact with a profoundly different civilization might provide! In a cosmic setting vast and old beyond ordinary human understanding we are a little lonely, and we ponder the ultimate significance, if any, of our tiny but exquisite blue planet, the Earth.... In the deepest sense the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a search for ourselves.

It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.

A single message from space will show that it is possible to live through technological adolescence. . . . It is possible that the future of human civilization depends on the receipt of interstellar messages.

Accommodation to change, the thoughtful pursuit of alternative futures are keys to the survival of civilization and perhaps of the human species.

In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. It's their nature . They can't help it.

I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future, can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.