February 14th, 1990: The Pale Blue Dot

[Principled Man]

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again 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 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.

 

Carl Sagan - 1994

[greyfriar]

Great quote from Mr. Sagan.

First thing that came to mind when I read the thread title...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf2kEOgyCCY

[Principled Man]

Great quote from Mr. Sagan.

 

When Sagan died from cancer, I was not only very sad, but also very angry.

 

All I could see was the injustice of losing one of the greatest minds of our time "before his time".

[greyfriar]

Great quote from Mr. Sagan.

 

When Sagan died from cancer, I was not only very sad, but also very angry.

 

All I could see was the injustice of losing one of the greatest minds of our time "before his time".

Yeah, another sad loss. Always loved when he was on TV but I never read one of his books though. Think I should change that in the near future.