# Quote — Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden

> In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion: they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierarchy: an exchange of one set of rituals for another, or perhaps for a less structured society with fewer rituals. And yet there are times when societies must change. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present” was Abraham Lincoln’s description of this truth. Much of the difficulty in attempting to restructure American and other societies arises from this resistance by groups with vested interests in the status quo. Significant change might require those who are now high in the hierarchy to move downward many steps. This seems to them undesirable and is resisted.

- Author: [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md)
- Book: [Dragons of Eden](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden.md)
- Page: 199
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#The_Dragons_of_Eden_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/in-general-human

## More from this book

> A mutation in a DNA molecule within a chromosome of a skin cell in my index finger has no influence on heredity. Fingers are not involved, at least directly, in the propagation of the species.

p. 27 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/a-mutation-in-a-dna.md)

> There is a popular contention that half or more of the brain is unused. From an evolutionary point of view this would be quite extraordinary: why should it have evolved if it had no function? But actually the statement is made on very little evidence.

p. 31 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/there-is-a-popular.md)

> Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

p. 7 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/absence-of-evidence.md)