“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain

“The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of you are wrong? It's a possibility, you know. You must care about the truth, right? Well, the way to winnow through all the differing contentions is to be skeptical. I'm not any more skeptical about your religious beliefs than I am about every new scientific idea I hear about. But in my line of work, they're called hypotheses, not inspiration and not revelation.” ― Dr. Ellie Arroway in Contact by Carl Sagan

“There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.” — Ray Bradbury

“The greatest of all the accomplishments of twentieth-century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.” — Lewis Thomas

“All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.” — John Locke

"I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides." - Carl Sagan

“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.” — Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.” — Voltaire

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” ― Oscar Wilde

“Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.” — François de La Rochefoucauld

“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature.” — Hubert Reeves

“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.” - Carl Sagan

"The belief that death is a gateway to a better life ought, logically, to prevent men from feeling any fear of death. Fortunately for the medical profession, it does not in fact have this effect, except in a few rare instances. One does not find that believers in a future life are less afraid of illness or more courageous in battle than those who think that death ends all. The late F. W. H. Myers used to tell how he asked a man at a dinner table what he thought would happen to him when he died. The man tried to ignore the question, but, on being pressed, replied: “Oh well, I suppose I shall inherit eternal bliss, but I wish you wouldn’t talk about such unpleasant subjects." — Bertrand Russell

“The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.” — Simone de Beauvoir

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” — Tacitus

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” ― Carl Sagan

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." - Albert Einstein

“We have designed our civilization based on science and technology and at the same time arranged things so that almost no one understands anything at all about science and technology. This is a clear prescription for disaster” ― Carl Sagan