# Quotes about the universe

- Quotes: 166
- Authors: 72
- Broader topic: [Quotes about physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/physics.md)
- Narrower topics: [stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stars.md)
- Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe
- JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.json

## Quotes

> The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.

[Blaise Pascal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal.md) · [Pensees](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/the-eternal-silence.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The totality of human endeavor is nothing when set against the stars.

[Tom Sweterlitsch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch.md) · [The Gone World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch/the-gone-world.md) · p. 147 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch/the-gone-world/the-totality-of-human.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> There was no center, no reason. Courtney’s death was random, banal viciousness inflicted by one organism upon another. There is no design. The universe isn’t kind or cruel. The universe is vast and indifferent to our desires.

[Tom Sweterlitsch](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch.md) · [The Gone World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch/the-gone-world.md) · p. 319 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-sweterlitsch/the-gone-world/there-was-no-center.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> He had a brief but vivid memory of being seven years old at his grandmother’s vineyard in Nortcoor, looking into the night sky and seeing it for the first time as infinity towering above him like God, only worse because it was real.

[James S. A. Corey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey.md) · [The Mercy of Gods](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods.md) · p. 60 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/the-mercy-of-gods/he-had-a-brief.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I suppose I was trying to figure out the meaning of my own existence. ...I went about it in a more indirect way: I set about trying to understand the entire Universe.

[Suzie Sheehy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy.md) · [The Matter of Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything/i-suppose-i-was.md)

Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Physics will always be, at its core, about understanding our place in the Universe...

[Suzie Sheehy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy.md) · [The Matter of Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything/physics-will-always.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/physics.md)

> Five years earlier... [a]s my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the true wonder of this designated "dark sky site" revealed itself. ...The stars and planets weren't up there and I wasn't down here: it was all part of one enormous physical system called the Universe. I was a part of it too. ...I'd never really felt my place in it until that moment.

[Suzie Sheehy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy.md) · [The Matter of Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/suzie-sheehy/the-matter-of-everything/five-years-earlier.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Colonizing space with enormous rockets will almost certainly not be a lifeline for them. For if they haven't learned to live here, how can they possibly survive in the distant Beyond? (XV)

[Véronique Tadjo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/veronique-tadjo.md) · [In the Company of Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/veronique-tadjo/in-the-company-of-men.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/veronique-tadjo/in-the-company-of-men/colonizing-space-with.md)

Topics: [nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> After the second dinner, [he] blew out a candle. In the darkness, the stars and Milky Way lit up. No one noticed the electricity was turned off. The people all stood in front of the map of the universe, amazed by the lights on the wall. It was something, it really was, everyone thought. It was a fine, strong feeling, being there together with the stars lit up before them. Even if things were going wrong, the bad feelings disappeared in front of those stars. They wanted to touch each other that night and hold hands. (p 176)

[Linda Hogan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/linda-hogan.md) · [Mean Spirit](https://www.leafyquotes.com/linda-hogan/mean-spirit.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/linda-hogan/mean-spirit/after-the-second.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md)

> A few stars had been let out early. Teppic looked up at them. Perhaps, he thought, there is life somewhere else. On the stars, maybe. If it's true that there are billions of universes stacked alongside one another, the thickness of a thought apart, then there must be people elsewhere.

[Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Pyramids](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/pyramids.md) · p. 96 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/pyramids/a-few-stars.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> "Maybe one of the worst things that we can do is to diminish the possibility of the universe in our insistence on our description of it."

[Ben Okri](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-okri.md) · [The Age of Magic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-okri/the-age-of-magic.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ben-okri/the-age-of-magic/maybe-one-of-the.md)

Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> He has looked long at the stars, and that is the beginning of wisdom.

[Chad Oliver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chad-oliver.md) · [The Winds of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chad-oliver/the-winds-of-time.md) · p. 38 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chad-oliver/the-winds-of-time/he-has-looked.md)

Topics: [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Could any technology, no matter how advanced, bridge the awful gulf what lay between the Solar System and the nearest alien sun? Many scientists flatly denied the possibility.
>
> A vocal minority refused to agree. Even if it took centuries to travel from star to star, they contended, this might be no obstacle to sufficiently determined explorers…In any event, why should one assume that all intelligent species were as short-lived as Man? There might be creatures in the universe to whom a thousand-year voyage would present nothing worse than slight boredom.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [2001: A Space Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/could-any-technology.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Those who had begun that experiment, so long ago, had not been men — or even remotely human. But they were flesh and blood, and when they looked out across the deeps of space, they had felt awe, and wonder, and loneliness. As soon as they possessed the power, they set forth for the stars. In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms, and watched the workings of evolution on a thousand worlds. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night. And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [2001: A Space Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/those-who-had.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md)

> Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.

[Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [2001: A Space Odyssey](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/2001-a-space-odyssey/behind-every-man.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> 'And, after all, what is a planet but an island in space?'

[John Wyndham](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham.md) · [The Midwich Cuckoos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos.md) · p. 205 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/the-midwich-cuckoos/and-after-all.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> For thousands of years, mankind considered itself the pinnacle of life’s creation on a planet sitting in the center of the universe. Science changed that perception. Leavitt, Hubble, and others helped us see that we live near the margin of a vast galaxy, in a universe of galaxies, with our planet one of many worlds. Darwin and the biologists had their say too. Our entire species is but one little twig on an enormous tree of life filled with all life on earth. But each discovery that moves us from the center of creation to some obscure corner brings an entirely new relation between us, other species, and the entire universe.

[Neil Shubin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-shubin.md) · [The Universe Within](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-shubin/the-universe-within.md) · p. 24 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-shubin/the-universe-within/for-thousands-of-years.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> The first ten-thousandth of a second after the Big Bang is far more interesting that the entire rest of the history of the universe.

[Charles Sheffield](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield.md) · [The Compleat McAndrew](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew.md) · p. 157 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-sheffield/the-compleat-mcandrew/the-first-ten-thousandth.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The human mind is a pattern, nothing more. The first dim flicker of awareness in the evolving forebrain of Australopithecus carried that pattern in embryo; and down through all the ages, as the human neural engine increased in power and complexity, gained control of its environment in geometrically expanding increments, the pattern never varied.
>
> Man clings to his self-orientation as the psychological center of the Universe. He can face any challenge within that framework, suffer any loss, endure any hardship—so long as the structure remains intact.
>
> Without it he’s a mind adrift in a trackless infinity—lacking any scale against which to measure his aspirations, his losses, his victories.
>
> Even when the light of his intellect shows him that the structure is itself a product of his brain; that infinity knows no scale, and eternity no duration—still he clings to his self-non-self concept, as a philosopher clings to a life he knows must end, to ideals he knows are ephemeral, to causes he knows will be forgotten.

[Keith Laumer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer.md) · [Dinosaur Beach](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach.md) · p. 192 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/keith-laumer/dinosaur-beach/the-human-mind.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> I wish that I could believe not in mortality but in reincarnation or individual immortality; I wish that I could be living again in another body or, God help me, even watching from the edge of a fleecy cloud in Heaven or out through the dirty windowpane of a haunted house or through the dull eyes of a dung beetle or on any terms. On any terms I want to be watching, I want to be there, I want to be around, when we reach the stars, when we take over the universe and the universes, when we become the God in whom I do not believe as yet because I do not believe he exists as yet nor will exist until we become Him.

[Fredric Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown.md) · [The Lights in the Sky are Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars.md) · p. 242 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars/i-wish-that.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> Escape, God how we all need escape from this tiny here. The need for it has motivated just about everything man has ever done in any direction other than that of the satisfaction of his physical appetites; it has led him along weird and wonderful pathways; it has led him into art and religion, ascetism and astrology, dancing and drinking, poetry and insanity. All of these have been escapes because he has known only recently the true direction of escape—outward, into infinity and eternity, away from this little flat if rounded surface we’re born on and die on. This mote in the solar system, this atom in the galaxy.

[Fredric Brown](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown.md) · [The Lights in the Sky are Stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars.md) · p. 243 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fredric-brown/the-lights-in-the-sky-are-stars/escape-god-how.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> I cannot believe that our existence in this universe is a mere quirk of fate, an accident of history, an incidental blip in the great cosmic drama. Our involvement is too intimate.

[Paul Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies.md) · [The Mind of God](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/the-mind-of-god.md) · p. 232 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/the-mind-of-god/i-cannot-believe.md)

Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The brain is the medium of expression of the human mind. Similarly the entire physical universe would be the medium of expression of the mind of a natural God.

[Paul Davies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies.md) · [God and the New Physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/god-and-the-new-physics.md) · p. 223 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paul-davies/god-and-the-new-physics/the-brain-is-the.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> In a flash she understood herself for what she was: an exceedingly smart monkey. She was a smart monkey who had travelled across interplanetary space in a thing made by other smart monkeys. And the fact of this was enough to make her laugh out loud, as if she had suddenly, belatedly, grasped the punchline to a very involved joke.
>
> I’m the punchline, Sunday thought. I’m the period, the full stop at the end of an immensely long and convoluted chain of happenstance and contingency stretching from the discovery of fire down in the Olduvai Gorge, through the inventions of language and paper and the wheel, through all the unremembered centuries to…this. This condition. Being brought out of hibernation aboard a spaceship orbiting another planet. Being alive in the twenty-second century. Being a thing with a central nervous system complex enough to understand the concept of being a thing with a central nervous system. Simply being.
>
> Consider all the inanimate matter in the universe, all the dumb atoms, all the mindless molecules, all the oblivious dust grains and pebbles and rocks and iceballs and worlds and stars, all the unthinking galaxies and superclusters, wheeling through the oblivious time-haunted megaparsecs of the cosmic supervoid. In all that immensity, she had somehow contrived to be a human being, a microscopically tiny, cosmically insignificant bundle of information-processing systems, wired to a mind more structurally complex than the Milky Way itself, maybe even more complex than the rest of the whole damned universe.
>
> She had threaded the needle of creation and stabbed the cosmic bullseye.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Blue Remembered Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/blue-remembered-earth.md) · p. 215 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/blue-remembered-earth/in-a-flash.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [evolution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/evolution.md)

> That was the universe: you could beat it once, you could float a message in a bottle across half of eternity, but the universe would always find a way to have the last laugh.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Pushing Ice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/pushing-ice.md) · p. 492 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/pushing-ice/that-was-the.md)

Topics: [fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It was a glaring omission, a sign of cosmic sloppiness. Not even that, Vasko corrected himself. It was a sign of cosmic obliviousness. The universe didn’t know what was happening here. It didn’t know and it didn’t care. It didn’t even know that it didn’t know.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Absolution Gap](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap.md) · p. 627 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap/it-was-a-glaring.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> To feel oneself so tiny, so fragile, so inherently losable, was at first spiritually crushing. But, by the same token, this realisation was also strangely liberating: if an individual human existence meant so little, if one’s actions were so cosmically irrelevant, then the notion of some absolute moral framework made about as much sense as the universal ether. Measured against the infinite, therefore, people were no more capable of meaningful sin—or meaningful good—than ants, or dust.
>
> Worlds barely registered sin. Suns hardly deigned to notice it. On the scale of solar systems and galaxies, it meant nothing at all. It was like some obscure subatomic force that simply petered out on those scales.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Absolution Gap](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap.md) · p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/absolution-gap/to-feel-oneself.md)

Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [sin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sin.md)

> They had been in love, desperately in love, but the universe cared nothing for the vicissitudes of the human heart.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Redemption Ark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark.md) · p. 586 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark/they-had-been.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> He had never lost that mingled combination of awe and terror that welled up in him when confronted by the routinely huge distances of space.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Redemption Ark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark.md) · p. 129 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/redemption-ark/he-had-never.md)

Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> “I imagine you feel insignificant,” Sajaki said, almost as if he had been listening in on the conversation. “Well; you’re justified in feeling that way. You are insignificant. That’s the majesty of this place. Would you choose it any other way?”

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Revelation Space](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/revelation-space.md) · p. 523 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/revelation-space/i-imagine-you.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe always feels old, though. That’s a universal truth, a universal fact of life. It felt old for her, already cobwebbed by history. Hard for us to grasp, I know. Human civilisation, it’s just the last scratch on the last scratch on the last scratch, on the last layer of everything. We’re noise. Dirt. We haven’t begun to leave a trace.

[Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md) · [Beyond the Aquila Rift](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift.md) · p. 695 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/beyond-the-aquila-rift/the-universe-always.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization.md)

> In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.

[John Twelve Hawks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks.md) · [Spark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/spark.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-twelve-hawks/spark/in-reality-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Having begun my life in science searching for the equation beyond time, I now believe that the deepest secret of the universe is that its essence rests in how it unfolds moment by moment in time.

[Lee Smolin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin.md) · [Time Reborn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/time-reborn.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/time-reborn/having-begun-my-life.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> I believe that the main lesson of relativity and quantum theory is that the world is nothing but an evolving network of relationships.

[Lee Smolin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin.md) · [Three Roads to Quantum Gravity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lee-smolin/three-roads-to-quantum-gravity/i-believe-that.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The vastness of the universe-and love, the thing that makes the vastness bearable-is out of reach to the arrogant.

[Ann Druyan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan.md) · [Cosmos: Possible Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds/the-vastness-of-the.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> A great tree grew up, one with many branches, and six times it was almost felled. But still it grows and we are but one small branch, one that cannot live without its tree. And slowly, we learned to read the book of nature, to learn its laws, to nurture the tree. To find out where and when we are in the great ocean, to become a way for the cosmos to know itself and to return to the stars.

[Ann Druyan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan.md) · [Cosmos: Possible Worlds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ann-druyan/cosmos-possible-worlds/a-great-tree.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then. Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been allotted to me?

[Blaise Pascal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal.md) · [Pensees](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/when-i-consider.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.

[Blaise Pascal](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal.md) · [Pensees](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/blaise-pascal/pensees/for-after-all.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> All this long human story, most passionate and tragic in the living, was but an unimportant, a seemingly barren and negligible effort, lasting only for a few moments in the life of the galaxy.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md) · p. 133 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/all-this-long.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Was man indeed, as he sometimes desired to be, the growing point of the cosmical spirit, in its temporal aspect at least? Or was he one of many million growing points? Or was mankind of no more importance in the universal view than rats in a cathedral? And again, was man’s true function power, or wisdom, or love, or worship, or all of all these? Or was the idea of function, of purpose, meaningless in relation to the cosmos? These grave questions I would answer.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md) · p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/was-man-indeed.md)

Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> [T]his is the goal of all living, that the cosmos may be known, and admired, and that it may be crowned with further beauties. Nowhere and at no time, so far as we can tell, at least within our own galaxy, has the adventure reached further than in ourselves. And in us, what has been achieved is but a minute beginning. But it is a real beginning.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Last And First Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men.md) · p. 231 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men/t-his-is-the.md)

Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe now appeared to me as a void wherein floated rare flakes of snow, each flake a universe.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md) · p. 13 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/the-universe-now.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> I perceived that I was on a little round grain of rock and metal, filmed with water and with air, whirling in sunlight and darkness. And on the skin of that little grain all the swarms of men, generation by generation, had lived in labour and blindness, with intermittent joy and intermittent lucidity of spirit. And all their history, with its folk-wanderings, its empires, its philosophies, its proud sciences, its social revolutions, its increasing hunger for community, was but a flicker in one day of the lives of the stars.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Star Maker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker.md) · p. 11 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/star-maker/i-perceived-that.md)

Topics: [history](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Thus the whole duration of humanity, with its many sequent species and its incessant downpour of generations, is but a flash in the lifetime of the cosmos.

[Olaf Stapledon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon.md) · [Last And First Men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men.md) · p. 206 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/olaf-stapledon/last-and-first-men/thus-the-whole.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> One of the curious features of modern physics is that in spite of its overwhelming success in explaining a vast range of physical phenomena from quark to quasar, it fails to give us a single metaphor for how the universe really works.

[Nick Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert.md) · [Quantum Reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert/quantum-reality.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert/quantum-reality/one-of-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/physics.md)

> The entire visible universe, what Bishop Berkley called "the mighty frame of the world," rests ultimately on a strange quantum kind of being no more substantial than a promise.

[Nick Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert.md) · [Quantum Reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert/quantum-reality.md) · p. 195 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nick-herbert/quantum-reality/the-entire-visible.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/physics.md)

> We look up at the same stars, and see such different things.

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Storm of Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/we-look-up-at-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> How can the night be so beautiful? he asked himself. Why would the stars want to look down on the likes of me?

[George RR Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin.md) · [A Storm of Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/how-can-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> Stars, too, were time travelers. How many of those ancient points of light were the last echoes of suns now dead? How many had been born but their light not yet come this far? If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone? I had always known the sky was full of mysteries - but not until now had I realized how full of them the earth was.

[Ransom Riggs](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ransom-riggs.md) · [Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ransom-riggs/miss-peregrines-home-for-peculiar-children.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ransom-riggs/miss-peregrines-home-for-peculiar-children/stars-too-were.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md)

> Again time passed. In one of the remoter galaxies a supernova flamed, and on a rocky, barren world a small living thing squirmed experimentally—and to mankind the one event was just as important as the other.

[Murray Leinster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster.md) · [The Pirates of Zan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-pirates-of-zan.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/murray-leinster/the-pirates-of-zan/again-time-passed.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It is written:
>
> That given any one of a thousand million possible paths, life will take them all;
>
> That worlds which will support life will give birth to it;
>
> That worlds which cannot support intelligent life will be colonized;
>
> And that where both can take place, both will take place.
>
> It is written that this is what the vast, unknowing interstellar stage is for: To be given consciousness and purpose while its gift of existence lasts.
>
> It is written:
>
> That this is a random process;
>
> That in the end all will be darkness and silence again;
>
> But that while it lasts, life spreads through it, to make it aware of its own vastness and beauty, which otherwise it can never have known.
>
> This is a gift; but the Giver is unknown.
>
> That too is written.

[James Blish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish.md) · [And All The Stars A Stage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish/and-all-the-stars-a-stage.md) · p. 190 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-blish/and-all-the-stars-a-stage/it-is-written.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe held as many surprises as it did stars. No, more. That was its glory. But someday one of them was bound to kill you.

[Poul Anderson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson.md) · [The Boat of a Million Years](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years.md) · p. 517 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/poul-anderson/the-boat-of-a-million-years/the-universe-held.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe was a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar. Every physical event was an utterance that could be parsed in two entirely different ways, one causal and the other teleological.

[Ted Chiang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang.md) · [Stories of Your Life and Others](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/stories-of-your-life-and-others.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/stories-of-your-life-and-others/the-universe-was.md)

Topics: [language](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/language.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The barely awake public, trained to the attention span of a commercial, thought that science had two children: either consumer yummies, served up by the handmaiden of technology, or else awesome wonders like the beauties of astronomy. The unsettling side they largely ignored, unless for the momentary shock value of, say, swollen insects doing disgusting things. But the root promise of science was of a world unshaped by humans. The expanses of time and space that stretched out from the human community were terrifying, and most avoided even thinking of them.

[Gregory Benford](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford.md) · [Cosm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm.md) · p. 243 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-benford/cosm/the-barely-awake.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> We ignore the blackness of outer space and pay attention to the stars, especially if they seem to order themselves into constellations.

[Neal Stephenson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson.md) · [The Diamond Age](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/neal-stephenson/the-diamond-age/we-ignore-the.md)

Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The interconnectedness of all things: Buddhists have always known it and physicists now confirm it. Nothing that happens is an isolated event, it only appears to be. The more we judge and label it, the more we isolate it.

[Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [Stillness Speaks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/the-interconnectedness-of-all.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [judging others](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/judging-others.md)

> In most cases, we cannot begin to understand what role a seemingly senseless event may have within the totality of the cosmos but recognizing its inevitability within the vastness of the whole can be the beginning of an inner acceptance of what is and thus a realignment with the wholeness of life. (Ch 10)

[Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [Stillness Speaks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/in-most-cases.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [acceptance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/acceptance.md)

> The wholeness of life becomes fragmented through our thinking. Yet the totality of life has brought this event about. It is part of the web of interconnectedness that is the cosmos. This means whatever is could not be otherwise. (Ch 10)

[Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [Stillness Speaks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/the-wholeness-of-life.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> All life is a struggle for existence. Why should it cease to be a struggle if it spreads among the stars?

[Ken MacLeod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod.md) · [Learning The World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world.md) · p. 239 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world/all-life-is-a-struggle.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [survival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival.md)

> Of all the sciences, astronomy was the one the superstitious liked least.

[Ken MacLeod](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod.md) · [Learning The World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world.md) · p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-macleod/learning-the-world/of-all-the.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [superstitions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions.md)

> Do not seek for reasons in the specific patterns of stars, or of other scattered arrangements of objects; look, instead, for a deeper universal order in the way that things behave.

[Roger Penrose](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-penrose.md) · [The Road to Reality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-penrose/the-road-to-reality.md) · p. 5 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-penrose/the-road-to-reality/do-not-seek.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> But I’ve suddenly changed my mind and turned more optimistic about our cosmic significance. Why? Because I’ve come to believe that advanced evolved life is very rare, yet has huge future potential, making our place in space and time remarkably significant.

[Max Tegmark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark.md) · [Our Mathematical Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe/but-ive-suddenly.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [optimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/optimism.md)

> [W]e've repeatedly underestimated not only the size of our cosmos, but also the power of our human mind to understand it.

[Max Tegmark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark.md) · [Our Mathematical Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/max-tegmark/our-mathematical-universe/w-eve-repeatedly-underestimated.md)

Topics: [reason](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> We are made out of stars, you and I.

[Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/we-are-made.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> If the world has a mind then it's all worse than we thought.

[Cormac McCarthy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy.md) · [Stella Maris](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/stella-maris.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/cormac-mccarthy/stella-maris/if-the-world.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [pessimism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism.md)

> There is no phenomenon in the universe that does not intimately concern us, from a pebble resting at the bottom of the ocean, to the movement of a galaxy millions of light years away. Walt Whitman said, "I believe a blade of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars...." These words are not philosophy. They come from the depths of his soul. He also said, "I am large, I contain multitudes." This might be called a meditation on "interfacing endlessly interwoven." All phenomena are interdependent. When we think of a speck of dust, a flower, or a human being, our thinking cannot break loose from the idea of unity, of one, of calculation. We see a line drawn between one and many, one and not one. But if we truly realize the interdependent nature of the dust, the flower, and the human being, we see that unity cannot exist without diversity. Unity and diversity interpenetrate each other freely. Unity is diversity, and diversity is unity. This is the principle of interbeing.

[Thich Nhat Hanh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh.md) · [The Sun My Heart](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thich-nhat-hanh/the-sun-my-heart/there-is-no-phenomenon.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [community](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/community.md)

> We have already discovered two species that are very intelligent but technically less advanced than us — the common chimpanzee and pygmy chimpanzee. Has our response been to sit down and try to communicate with them? Of course not. Instead we shoot them, stuff them, dissect them, cut off their hands for trophies, put them on exhibit in cages, inject them with AIDS virus as a medical experiment, and destroy or take over their habitat. That response was predictable, because human explorers who discovered technically less advanced humans also regularly responded by shooting them, decimating their populations with new diseases, and destroying or taking over their habitat. Any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same way...If there really are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us, then for heaven's sake let's turn off our own transmitters and try to escape detection, or we are doomed.

[Jared Diamond](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond.md) · [The Third Chimpanzee](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-third-chimpanzee.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-third-chimpanzee/we-have-already.md)

Topics: [animals](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [cruelty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty.md)

> When You and I behind the Veil are past,
>
> Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last,
>
> Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
>
> As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast.

[Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam.md) · [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/when-you-and.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> And fear not lest Existence closing your
>
> Account, and mine, should know the like no more;
>
> The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour'd
>
> Millions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.

[Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam.md) · [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/and-fear-not.md)

Topics: [death](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
>
> Whereunder crawling coop't we live and die,
>
> Lift not thy hands to It for help — for It
>
> Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

[Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam.md) · [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/omar-khayyam/rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/and-that-inverted.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> In the ages to come man may be able to predict, perhaps even to control, the wayward courses of the winds and the clouds, but hardly will his puny hands have strength to speed afresh our slackening planet in its orbit or rekindle the dying fire of the sun. Yet the philosopher who trembles at the idea of such distant catastrophes may console himself by reflecting that these gloomy apprehensions, like the earth and the sun themselves, are only parts of that unsubstantial world which thought has conjured up out of the void, and that the phantoms which the subtle enchantress has evoked to-day she may ban to-morrow. They too, like so much that to the common eye seems solid, may melt into air, into thin air.

[James George Frazer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer.md) · [The Golden Bough](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough/in-the-ages.md)

Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Being an immortal doesn’t matter to me. If one looks out into the universe and perceives what true immortality would mean in terms of time and space, it takes monstrous hubris to even conceive of personal immortality, much less desire it.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Visitor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor.md) · p. 51 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-visitor/being-an-immortal.md)

Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> You felt something huge and marvelous of which you are part, and in the moments you described, you forgot yourself for you were one with your world and with the sky above it, and even the stars looking down. There is nothing larger or more wonderful than that. Still, there are those who would prefer self. They will accept any belief, no matter how foolish, if it guarantees them personal immortality. I know people like that. But there are others who know themselves well enough to realize how limiting that is.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Singer From The Sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea/you-felt-something.md)

Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [immortality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality.md)

> No one ever has to believe! The universe is, it does not require belief. Do you think it will stop existing if you do not believe? Do you think far galaxies will harbor resentment against you if you do not believe? Do you resent the ant who does not look up and admire you? Never!

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Singer From The Sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea.md) · p. 382 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/singer-from-the-sea/no-one-ever.md)

Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> We are made of the stuff of stars, given our lives by a living world, given our selves by time. We are brother to the trees and sister to the sun. We are of such glorious stuff we need not carry pain around like a label. Our duty, as living things, to be sure that pain is not our whole story, for we can choose to be otherwise. As Ellin says, we can choose to dance.

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Six Moon Dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance.md) · p. 511 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/we-are-made.md)

Topics: [suffering](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/suffering.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [free will](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/free-will.md)

> “Pff,” said the Timmy. “You mankinds with your fathers and mothers. This is one of the first things we thought strange, you all the time talking my father this, my mother that. What does fathers and mothers have to do with who you are? Your planet is your mother; time is your father. Your insides know this! All life outside you is your kinfolk. Even we dosha are your kin, born of another planet but with the same father as you. Starflame makes your materials, and live-planet assembles them, and time designs what you are, not your fathers and mothers. Pff. You could be genetic assemblage; Bofusdiaga could make you without fathers or mothers; and you would still be persons! But you could not have material without stars, or life without planet, or intelligence without time and be any way at all. It is your stars and your world and long time gives you legs to dance and brains to plan and voices to sing.”

[Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [Six Moon Dance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance.md) · p. 402 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/pff-said-the.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Destiny of Earthseed
>
> Is to take root among the stars.

[Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) · [Parable of the Sower](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower.md) · p. 84 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/the-destiny-of-earthseed.md)

Topics: [fate](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter

[Octavia E. Butler](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler.md) · [Parable of the Sower](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower.md) · p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/octavia-e-butler/parable-of-the-sower/people-here-in-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [poverty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poverty.md)

> Did you arrogantly expect that the entire universe was waiting upon man to arrive?

[David Brin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin.md) · [Kil’n People](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people.md) · p. 516 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/david-brin/kiln-people/did-you-arrogantly.md)

Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> There are landscapes in which we feel above us not sky but space. Something larger, deeper than sky is sensed, is seen, although in such settings the sky is invariably immense. There is a place between the cerebrum and the stars where sky stops and space commenses, and should we find ourselves on a particular prairie or mountaintop at a particular hour [...] our relationship with sky thins and loosens while our connection with space becomes as solid as bone.

[Tom Robbins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins.md) · [Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/half-asleep-in-frog-pajamas.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/half-asleep-in-frog-pajamas/there-are-landscapes.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> If you are cheerful, and wish to remain so, leave the study of astronomy alone. Of all the sciences, it alone deserves the character of the terrible.

[Thomas Hardy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy.md) · [Two on a Tower](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/two-on-a-tower.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/two-on-a-tower/if-you-are.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stars.md)

> In short, Mort was one of those people who are more dangerous than a bag full of rattlesnakes. He was determined to discover the underlying logic behind the universe... which was going to be hard, because there wasn't one.

[Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Mort](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/mort.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/mort/in-short-mort.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [logic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/logic.md)

> Here is the blackness of space, the myriad stars gleaming like diamond dust or, as some people would say, like great balls of exploding hydrogen a very long way off. But then, some people would say anything.

[Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [The Light Fantastic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-light-fantastic.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/the-light-fantastic/here-is-the.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> And if I’m alone in bed, I will go over to window, look up at the sky and feel certain that loneliness is a lie, because the Universe is there to keep me company.

[Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [Manuscript Found in Accra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra/and-if-im-alone.md)

Topics: [loneliness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> A grain of sand is a moment of creation, and the universe has taken millions of years to create it.

[Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [The Alchemist](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist.md) · p. 131 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/the-alchemist/a-grain-of-sand.md)

Topics: [time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Maybe it’s time we humans abandoned our species-specific chauvinism—our petty outrage that the Universe has unfolded in a way that doesn’t suit us.

[Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Ring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring.md) · p. 825 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring/maybe-its-time.md)

Topics: [pride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pride.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Empty. Barren. These were the true conditions of the Universe, she thought; life, and variety, and energy, were isolated aberrations.

[Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Ring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring.md) · p. 743 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring/empty-barren-these.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It was too anthropomorphic to consider the lifecycle of a star as some analogy of human birth, life and death. A star was a construct of physical processes; the evolution it went through was simply a search for equilibrium stages between changing, opposing forces. There was no life or death involved, no loss or gain: just process.
>
> Why shouldn’t it be beautiful?

[Stephen Baxter](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter.md) · [Ring](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring.md) · p. 755 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-baxter/ring/it-was-too.md)

Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The only things in my life that compatibly exist with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.

[Ansel Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ansel-adams.md) · [Ansel Adams: An Autobiography](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ansel-adams/ansel-adams-an-autobiography.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ansel-adams/ansel-adams-an-autobiography/the-only-things.md)

Topics: [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> "One thing more, son. Do you believe in God?"
>
> Slowly Frost put the spoon back into the bowl.
>
> He asked: "You really want an answer?"
>
> "I want an answer," said the man. "I want an honest one."
>
> "The answer," said Frost, "is that I don't know. Not, certainly, in the kind of God that you are thinking of. Not the old white-whiskered, woodcut gentleman. But a supreme being — yes, I would believe in a God of that sort. Because it seems to me there must be some sort of force or power or will throughout the universe. The universe is too orderly for it to be otherwise. When you measure all this orderliness, from the mechanism of the atom at one end of the scale, out to the precision of the operation of the universe at the other end, it seems unbelievable that there is not a supervisory force of some kind, a benevolent ruling force to maintain that sort of order."

[Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [Why Call Them Back from Heaven?](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/why-call-them-back-from-heaven.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/why-call-them-back-from-heaven/one-thing-more.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> You sometimes get a thrill at knowing where you are. You’re often filled with wonder, but more often you are puzzled. You are reminded, again and yet again, of how insignificant you are. And there are times when you forget that you are human. You’re just a blob of life—brother to everything that ever existed or ever will exist.

[Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [Time is the Simplest Thing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-is-the-simplest-thing.md) · p. 69 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-is-the-simplest-thing/you-sometimes-get.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth.

[Clifford D. Simak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak.md) · [Time and Again](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again.md) · p. 204 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/clifford-d-simak/time-and-again/before-man-goes.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The sentient may perceive and love the universe, but the universe cannot perceive and love the sentient.

[Michael Moorcock](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock.md) · [The Knight of the Swords](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-knight-of-the-swords.md) · p. 9 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-knight-of-the-swords/the-sentient-may.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> “By and large, conventional religion, as many humans accept it, is illogical in its attempt to conceive of entities lying outside the Universe. Since the Universe comprises everything, it is evident that nothing can lie outside it. The idea of a ‘god’ creating the Universe is a mechanistic absurdity clearly derived from the making of machines by men. I take it that we are in agreement about all this.”

[Fred Hoyle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle.md) · [The Black Cloud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud.md) · p. 177 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud/by-and-large.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It isn’t the Universe that’s following our logic, it’s we that are constructed in accordance with the logic of the Universe. And that gives what I might call a definition of intelligent life: something that reflects the basic structure of the Universe.

[Fred Hoyle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle.md) · [The Black Cloud](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud.md) · p. 158 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fred-hoyle/the-black-cloud/it-isnt-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [intelligence](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/intelligence.md)

> No matter where I go in the world, although I can't speak any foreign language, I don't feel out of place. I think of the earth as my home. If everyone thought this way, people might notice just how foolish international friction is, and they would put an end to it. We are, after all, at a point where it is almost narrow-minded to think merely in geocentric terms. Human beings have launched satellites into outer space, and yet they still grovel on earth looking at their own feet like wild dogs. What is to become of our planet?

[Akira Kurosawa](https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa.md) · [Something Like An Autobiography](https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa/something-like-an-autobiography.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/akira-kurosawa/something-like-an-autobiography/no-matter-where.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Planets were very large places, on any scale but that of the spaces in between them.

[Ursula K. Le Guin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin.md) · [City Of Illusions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/city-of-illusions.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ursula-k-le-guin/city-of-illusions/planets-were-very.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> As Edward P. Tryon of Columbia University once put it: "In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our universe is simply one of those things that happen from time to time." To which adds Guth: "Although the creation of a universe might be very unlikely, Tryon emphasized that no one had counted the failed attempts."

[Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md) · [A Short History of Nearly Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything/as-edward-p-tryon.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> All that can really be said is that at some indeterminate point in the very distant past, for reasons unknown, there came the moment known to science as t = 0. We were on our way.

[Bill Bryson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson.md) · [A Short History of Nearly Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything.md) · p. 10 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bill-bryson/a-short-history-of-nearly-everything/all-that-can.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It is as inescapable as the laws of physics that humanity will one day confront some type of extinction-level event. But will we, like our ancestors, have the drive and determination to survive and even flourish? . . . On a scale of decades, we face threats that are not natural but are largely self-inflicted [including] global warming . . . modern warfare as nuclear weapons proliferate in some of the most unstable regions of the globe, [or] weaponized microbes [that could conceivably] wipe out 98 percent of the human race. . . . On a scale of thousands of years, we face the onset of another ice age [or] the possibility that the supervolcano under Yellowstone National Park may awaken from its long slumber . . . . On a scale of millions of years, we face the threat of another meteor or cometary impact . . . . We now know that there are several thousand NEOs (near-Earth objects) that cross the orbit of the Earth and pose a danger to life on our planet. . . . If there is one lesson we can learn from our history, it is that humanity, when faced with life-threatening crises, has risen to the challenge and reached for even higher goals. In some sense, the spirit of exploration is in our genes and hardwired into our soul. [So] now we face perhaps the greatest challenge of all: to leave the confines of Earth and soar into outer space. . . . Perhaps our fate is to become a multiplanet species that lives among the stars.

[Michio Kaku](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku.md) · [The Future of Humanity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku/the-future-of-humanity.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku/the-future-of-humanity/it-is-as-inescapable.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [survival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival.md)

> "Killer asteroids are nature's way of asking, 'How's that space program coming along?'" - Anonymous

[Michio Kaku](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku.md) · [The Future of Humanity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku/the-future-of-humanity.md) · p. 54 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michio-kaku/the-future-of-humanity/killer-asteroids-are.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> If you'd like to know, I can tell you that in your universe you move freely in three dimensions that you call space. You move in a straight line in a fourth, which you call time, and stay rooted to one place in a fifth, which is the first fundamental of probability. After that it gets a bit complicated, and there's all sort of stuff going on in dimensions thirteen to twenty-two that you really wouldn't want to know about. All you really need to know for the moment is that the universe is a lot more complicated than you might think, even if you start from a position of thinking it's pretty damn complicated in the first place. I can easily not say words like "damn" if it offends you.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [Mostly Harmless](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/mostly-harmless/if-youd-like.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> He was wrong to think he could now forget that the big, hard, oily, dirty, rainbow-hung Earth on which he lived was a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot lost in the unimaginable infinity of the Universe.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/he-was-wrong.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Total Perspective Vortex derives its picture of the whole Universe on the principle of extrapolated matter analyses.
>
> To explain—since every piece of matter in the Universe is in some way affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation—every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.
>
> The man who invented the Total Perspective Vortex did so basically in order to annoy his wife.
>
> Trin Tragula—for that was his name—was a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher or, as his wife would have it, an idiot.
>
> And she would nag him incessantly about the utterly inordinate amount of time he spent staring out into space, or mulling over the mechanics of safety pins, or doing spectrographic analyses of pieces of fairy cake.
>
> "Have some sense of proportion!" she would say, sometimes as often as thirty-eight times in a single day.
>
> And so he built the Total Perspective Vortex—just to show her.
>
> And into one end he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other end he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.
>
> To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/the-total-perspective.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The story so far:
>
> In the beginning the Universe was created.
>
> This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/the-story-so-far.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
>
> There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/there-is-a-theory.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Restaurant at the End of the Universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-restaurant-at-the-end-of-the-universe/it-is-known.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [logic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/logic.md)

> Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity—distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Primary Phase](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase/looking-up-into.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> "Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space. Listen..." and so on.

[Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Primary Phase](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-primary-phase/space-it-says.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Perhaps you saw what place our universe plays in the scheme of things—as no more than an atom in a blade of grass. Could it be that everything we can perceive, from the microscopic virus to the distant Horsehead Nebula, is contained in one blade of grass that may have existed for only a single season in an alien time-flow? What if that blade should be cut off by a scythe? When it begins to die, would the rot seep into our universe and our own lives, turning everything yellow and brown and desiccated? Perhaps it's already begun to happen. We say the world has moved on; maybe we really mean that it has begun to dry up."Think how small such a concept of things make us, gunslinger! If a God watches over it all, does He actually mete out justice for such a race of gnats? Does His eye see the sparrow fall when the sparrow is less than a speck of hydrogen floating disconnected in the depth of space? And if He does see... what must the nature of such a God be? Where does He live? How is it possible to live beyond infinity?

[Stephen King](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king.md) · [The Gunslinger](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-gunslinger.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/the-gunslinger/perhaps-you-saw.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> That the universe, as was once thought, expands and contracts indefinitely, one Big Bang collapsing into another one, seemed reasonable enough. But in both models of the universe, what caused the first Big Bang? Or was there a first Big Bang, any more than a last number? If there was a first cause, was there a first causer? Did Big Bangs just happen to happen? Can we name the first causer “God”? We can name it anything we want. I can name it after myself. It is utterly insignificant what it is called, because we would be giving a name to something that falls outside all categories of thought and must be unknowable and irrelevant to knowledge. So naming it is a futile enterprise. The word “God” is unhelpful because it implies it has a knowable definition.

[Roger Ebert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-ebert.md) · [Life Itself](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-ebert/life-itself.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/roger-ebert/life-itself/that-the-universe.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> “The beauty of Mars exists in the human mind,” he said in that dry factual tone, and everyone stared at him amazed. “Without the human presence it is just a collection of atoms, no different than any other random speck of matter in the universe. It’s we who understand it, and we who give it meaning. All our centuries of looking up at the night sky and watching it wander through the stars. All those nights of watching it through the telescopes, looking at a tiny disk trying to see canals in the albedo changes. All those dumb sci-fi novels with their monsters and maidens and dying civilizations. And all the scientists who studied the data, or got us here. That’s what makes Mars beautiful. Not the basalt and the oxides.”

[Kim Stanley Robinson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson.md) · [Red Mars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars.md) · p. 177 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/red-mars/the-beauty-of-mars.md)

Topics: [beauty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> People ask where writers get ideas.
>
> Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don’t block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighborhood.

[C. J. Cherryh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh.md) · [Downbelow Station](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station.md) · p. 3 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/c-j-cherryh/downbelow-station/people-ask-where.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> I quite fixedly believe the Wardens of Earth sometimes unbar strange windows, that face on other worlds than ours. And some of us, I think, once in a while get a peep through these windows. But we are not permitted to get a long peep, or an unobstructed peep, nor very certainly, are we permitted to see all there is — out yonder. The fatal fault, sir, of your theorizing is that it is too complete. It aims to throw light upon the universe, and therefore is self-evidently moonshine. The Wardens of Earth do not desire that we should understand the universe, Mr. Kennaston; it is part of Their appointed task to insure that we never do; and because of Their efficiency every notion that any man, dead, living, or unborn, might form as to the universe will necessarily prove wrong.

[James Branch Cabell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell.md) · [The Cream of the Jest](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-branch-cabell/the-cream-of-the-jest/i-quite-fixedly.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md)

> For more than three decades the Americans had been gradually sliding into isolationism and industrial decline. Space, he thought ruefully, they should have gone into space. He'd never understood the strange paralysis of will that had seemed to grip their brilliant early efforts. Or perhaps it was simply a failure of imagination, of vision.

[William Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson.md) · [Burning Chrome](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/burning-chrome.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/burning-chrome/for-more-than.md)

Topics: [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [America](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/america.md)

> Even if all life on our planet is destroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us, in some region or dimension that we simply do not perceive. Even though I can't prove that, even though it isn't logical — I believe it.

[Philip K. Dick](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick.md) · [The Man in the High Castle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/philip-k-dick/the-man-in-the-high-castle/even-if-all.md)

Topics: [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe, beyond man, to contemplate what it would be like without man, as it was in a great part of its long history and as it is in a great majority of places. When this objective view is finally attained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are fully appreciated, to then turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as part of this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is very rare, and very exciting. It usually ends in laughter and a delight in the futility of trying to understand what this atom in the universe is, this thing — atoms with curiosity — that looks at itself and wonders why it wonders. Well, these scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

[Richard P. Feynman](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman.md) · [The Meaning of It All](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/the-meaning-of-it-all.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/richard-p-feynman/the-meaning-of-it-all/it-is-a-great.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md)

> The Universe is God's. It is one thing, a wholeness against which all separations may be identified. Transient life, even the self-aware and reasoning life which we call sentient, holds only fragile trusteeship on any portion of the wholeness.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Children Of Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/the-universe-is-gods.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Church and State, scientific reason and faith, the individual and his community, even progress and tradition — all of these can be reconciled in the teachings of Muad'Dib. He taught us that there exists no intransigent opposites except in the beliefs of men. Anyone can rip aside the veil of Time. You can discover the future in the past or in your own imagination. Doing this, you win back your consciousness in your inner being. You know then that the universe is a coherent whole and you are indivisible from it.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Children Of Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/children-of-dune/church-and-state.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune Messiah](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune-messiah.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune-messiah/you-do-not.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

[Frank Herbert](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert.md) · [Dune](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/frank-herbert/dune/deep-in-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [logic](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/logic.md)

> He had long ago made a pact with himself to postulate a Created Universe on even-numbered days, a tail-swallowing eternal-and-uncreated Universe on odd-numbered days — since each hypothesis, while equally paradoxical, neatly avoided the paradoxes of the other — with, of course, a day off each leap year for sheer solipsist debauchery. (UC)

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Stranger in a Strange Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/he-had-long.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Universe has variety, something for everybody — a fact you field workers often miss.

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Stranger in a Strange Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/the-universe-has.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Universe was a damned silly place at best… but the least likely explanation for its existence was the no-explanation of random chance, the conceit that some abstract somethings "just happened" to be some atoms that "just happened" to get together in configurations which "just happened" to look like consistent laws and then some of these configurations "just happened" to possess self-awareness and that two such "just happened" to be the Man from Mars and the other a bald-headed old coot with Jubal himself inside.
>
> No, Jubal would not buy the "just happened" theory, popular as it was with men who called themselves scientists. Random chance was not a sufficient explanation of the Universe — in fact, random chance was not sufficient to explain random chance; the pot could not hold itself.

[Robert A. Heinlein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein.md) · [Stranger in a Strange Land](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/stranger-in-a-strange-land/the-universe-was.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [chance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chance.md)

> With current technology interstellar travel is utterly impractical. Alpha Centauri can never become a holiday destination.

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [Brief Answers to the Big Questions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions.md) · p. 174 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/brief-answers-to-the-big-questions/with-current-technology.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [travel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> One could say: "The boundary condition of the universe is that it has no boundary." The universe would be completely self-contained and not affected by anything outside itself. It would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE.

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [A Brief History of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time.md) · p. 136 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time/one-could-say.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [The Grand Design](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/the-grand-design.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/the-grand-design/because-there-is-a-law.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and the electron. ... The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life.

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [A Brief History of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time.md) · p. 125 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time/the-laws-of-science.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [A Brief History of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time.md) · p. 122 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time/the-whole-history.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?

[Stephen W. Hawking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking.md) · [A Brief History of Time](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time.md) · p. 174 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-w-hawking/a-brief-history-of-time/even-if-there.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> There is in the lovely Martian landscape not a footprint, not an artifact, not even an old beer can, not a blade of grass, not a kangaroo rat, not even, so far as we can tell, a microbe. Mars and the Moon and Venus... the only planets that we've landed on—are utterly lifeless. ...in our solar system we may discover that there is life only on this world. This says that life is not guaranteed, that life requires something special, something improbable.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/there-is-in-the.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> This vast number of worlds, the enormous scale of the universe... has not been taken into account, even superficially, in virtually no religion, and especially in no Western religions.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/this-vast-number.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that's their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/many-religions-have.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> A general problem with much of Western theology... is that the God portrayed is too small. It is a god of a tiny world and not a god of a galaxy, much less a universe.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/a-general-problem.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [theology](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/theology.md)

> The history of science—especially physics—has in part been the tension between the natural tendency to project our everyday experience on the universe and the universe's noncompliance...

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/the-history-of-science-especially.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> At birth all of us imagine that we are the universe, and we don't distinguish the boundaries between ourselves and those around us. ...in some social situations, there is the sense that we are central, important. ...there was a natural projection of those attitudes upon the universe.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/at-birth-all.md)

Topics: [selfishness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/selfishness.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md)

> I stress that the universe is made mostly of nothing, that something is the exception.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [The Varieties of Scientific Experience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/the-varieties-of-scientific-experience/i-stress-that.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn't strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 11 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/ann-druyan-suggests.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 371 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/since-in-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [survival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival.md)

> Once we overcome our fear of being tiny, we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome Universe that utterly dwarfs — in time, in space, and in potential — the tidy anthropocentric proscenium of our ancestors. We gaze across billions of light-years of space to view the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, and plumb the fine structure of matter. We peer down into the core of our planet, and the blazing interior of our star. We read the genetic language in which is written the diverse skills and propensities of every being on Earth. We uncover hidden chapters in the record of our origins, and with some anguish better understand our nature and prospects. We invent and refine agriculture, without which almost all of us would starve to death. We create medicines and vaccines that save the lives of billions. We communicate at the speed of light, and whip around the Earth in an hour and a half. We have sent dozens of ships to more than seventy worlds, and four spacecraft to the stars. We are right to rejoice in our accomplishments, to be proud that our species has been able to see so far, and to judge our merit in part by the very science that has so deflated our pretensions.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 53 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/once-we-overcome.md)

Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md)

> The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgement to have safely traveled from star to star.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 398 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/the-vast-distances.md)

Topics: [self-knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/self-knowledge.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stars.md)

> We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like the inside of a volcano. In many stories, both realms are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by gods or devils. Monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the Universe. Few found the similarity suspicious.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/weve-tended-in-our.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [imagination](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/imagination.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough, and uncover a miracle — another circle, drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point. There would be richer messages farther in. It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from. As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it. It's already here. It's inside everything. You don't have to leave your planet to find it. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature. Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Contact](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact.md) · p. 431 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact/the-universe-was.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [mathematics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mathematics.md)

> For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Contact](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact.md) · p. 430 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/contact/for-small-creatures.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> 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 a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
>
> Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
>
> 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](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Pale Blue Dot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot.md) · p. 8 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/pale-blue-dot/consider-again-that.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [humility](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility.md), [home](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home.md)

> If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 218 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/if-you-wish.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> We are the local embodiment of a Cosmos grown to selfawareness. We have begun to contemplate our origins: starstuff pondering the stars; organized assemblages of ten billion billion billion atoms considering the evolution of atoms; tracing the long journey by which, here at least, consciousness arose. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/we-are-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness.md)

> Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/those-afraid-of-the.md)

Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [superstitions](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions.md)

> The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/the-size-and.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md)

> Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 339 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/every-one-of.md)

Topics: [life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [tolerance](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tolerance.md)

> For as long as there been humans we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Where are we? Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. This perspective is a courageous continuation of our penchant for constructing and testing mental models of the skies; the Sun as a red-hot stone, the stars as a celestial flame, the Galaxy as the backbone of night.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/for-as-long.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 250 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/the-universe-seems.md)

Topics: [human nature](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the cosmos itself undergoes an immense and indeed an infinite number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond […] to those of modern scientific cosmology.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/the-hindu-religion.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Platonists and their Christian successors held the peculiar notion that the Earth was tainted and somehow nasty, while the heavens were perfect and divine. The fundamental idea that the Earth is a planet, that we are citizens of the Universe, was rejected and forgotten.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 188 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/the-platonists-and.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [Christianity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/christianity.md)

> Relativity does set limits on what humans can ultimately do. But the universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human aspirations.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 201 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/relativity-does-set.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [desire](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire.md)

> In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/in-the-vastness.md)

Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 4 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/the-cosmos-is-all.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md)

> We embarked on our journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 193 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/we-embarked-on-our.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [curiosity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/curiosity.md), [stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stars.md)

> Astronomically, the U. S. S. R. and the United States are the same place.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md) · p. 196 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/astronomically-the-u.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> Whether in some sense the universe is ultimately knowable depends not only on how many natural laws there are that encompass widely divergent phenomena, but also on whether we have the openness and the intellectual capacity to understand such laws. Our formulations of the regularities of nature are surely dependent on how the brain is built, but also, and to a significant degree, on how the universe is built.
>
> For myself, I like a universe that includes much that is unknown and, at the same time, much that is knowable. A universe in which everything is known would be static and dull, as boring as the heaven of some weak-minded theologians. A universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a thinking being. The ideal universe for us is one very much like the universe we inhabit. And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence.

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Broca's Brain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain.md) · p. 21 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/whether-in-some.md)

Topics: [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [secrets](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/secrets.md)

> Some ancient Asian cosmological views are close to the idea of an infinite regression of causes, as exemplified in the following apocryphal story: A Western traveler encountering an Oriental philosopher asks him to describe the nature of the world:
>
> “It is a great ball resting on the flat back of the world turtle.”
>
> “Ah yes, but what does the world turtle stand on?”
>
> “On the back of a still larger turtle.”
>
> “Yes, but what does he stand on?”
>
> “A very perceptive question. But it’s no use, mister; it’s turtles all the way down.”

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Broca's Brain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain.md) · p. 343 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/some-ancient-asian.md)

Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves—without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster. We cannot begin with an entirely clean slate, since we arrive at this problem with predispositions of hereditary and environmental origin; but, after understanding such built-in biases, is it not possible to pry insights from nature?

[Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md) · [Broca's Brain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain.md) · p. 339 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/brocas-brain/the-way-to-find.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [prejudice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice.md)

> Our island is this earth; and the most striking object we behold is the sun. As soon as we pass beyond our immediate surroundings, one or both of these must meet our eye. Thus the philosophy of most savage races is mainly directed to imaginary divisions of the earth or to the divinity of the sun.

[Jean Jacques Rousseau](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau.md) · [Emile; or On Education](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile-or-on-education/our-island-is-this.md)

Topics: [religion](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md)

> In the vast all of the Universe, must there be this unique anomaly — a consciousness that knows itself, loves itself and feels itself, joined to an organism which can only live within such and such degrees of heat, a merely transitory phenomenon? No, it is not mere curiosity that inspires the wish to know whether or not the stars are inhabited by living organisms, by consciousness akin to our own, and a profound longing enters into that dream that our souls shall pass from star to star through the vast spaces of the heavens, in an infinite series of transmigrations. The feeling of the divine makes us wish and believe that everything is animated, that consciousness, in a greater or less degree, extends through everything. We wish not only to save ourselves, but to save the world from nothingness. And therefore God. Such is his finality as we feel it.

[Miguel de Unamuno](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno.md) · [Tragic Sense of Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/in-the-vast.md)

Topics: [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md), [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [consciousness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/consciousness.md)

> Tell them the universe is too complicated a toy for a sensibly cautious being to play with.

[Larry Niven](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven.md) · [Ringworld](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld.md) · p. 314 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/larry-niven/ringworld/tell-them-the.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [caution](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/caution.md)

> The stars, like dust, encircle me
>
> In living mists of light;
>
> And all of space I seem to see
>
> In one vast burst of sight.

[Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Stars, Like Dust](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-stars-like-dust.md) · p. 30 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-stars-like-dust/the-stars-like.md)

Topics: [the universe](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-universe.md), [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md), [stars](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stars.md)