# Quote — Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden

> While ritual, emotion and reasoning are all significant aspects of human nature, the most nearly unique human characteristic is the ability to associate abstractly and to reason. Curiosity and the urge to solve problems are the emotional hallmarks of our species; and the most characteristically human activities are mathematics, science, technology, music and the arts--a somewhat broader range of subjects than is usually included under the “humanities.” Indeed, in its common usage this very word seems to reflect a peculiar narrowness of vision about what is human. Mathematics is as much a “humanity” as poetry.

- 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: 81
- 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/while-ritual-emotion

## 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)