# Quote — Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden

> Without these experimental tests, very few physicists would have accepted general relativity. There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brilliance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.

- 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: 193
- 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/without-these-experimental

## 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)