Neil deGrasse Tyson

Not enough books focus on how a culture responds to radically new ideas or discovery. Especially in the biography genre, they tend to focus on all the sordid details in the life of the person who made the discovery. I find this path to be voyeuristic but not enlightening. Instead, I ask, After evolution was discovered, how did religion and society respond? After cities were electrified, how did daily life change? After the airplane could fly from one country to another, how did commerce or warfare change? After we walked on the Moon, how differently did we view Earth? My larger understanding of people, places and things derives primarily from stories surrounding questions such as those.

I'd ask [God] why he keeps trying to kill us all with disease, pestilence, and natural disasters. I'd ask why 99% of all species there ever were are now extinct -- if God works in mysterious ways, that way is mysteriously genocidal.

Unlike what you may be told in other sectors of life, when observing the universe, size does matter, which often leads to polite __elescope envy_ at gatherings of amateur astronomers.

I look forward to the day when the solar system becomes our collective backyard__xplored not only with robots, but with the mind, body, and soul of our species.

Science literacy is an important part of what it is to be an informed citizen of society.

Science, enabled by engineering, empowered by NASA, tells us not only that we are in the universe but that the universe is in us. And for me, that sense of belonging elevates, not denigrates, the ego.

Science literacy is being plugged into the forces that power the universe. There is no excuse for thinking that the Sun, which is a million times the size of Earth, orbits Earth.

If the whole world shared such experiences, we would then have common dreams and everybody could begin thinking about tomorrow. And if everybody thinks about tomorrow, then someday we can visit the sky together.

Some people think emotionally more often than they think politically. Some think politically more often than they think rationally. Others never think rationally about anything at all.No judgment implied. Just an observation.

The more of us that feel the universe, the better off we will be in this world.

If the universe is anything, it should be fun.

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.

Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading, it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.

There__ a fascinating frailty of the human mind that psychologists know all about, called __rgument from ignorance._ This is how it goes. Remember what the ___ stands for in __FO_? You see lights flashing in the sky. You__e never seen anything like this before and don__ understand what it is. You say, __t__ a UFO!_ The ___ stands for __nidentified.__ut then you say, __ don__ know what it is; it must be aliens from outer space, visiting from another planet._ The issue here is that if you don__ know what something is, your interpretation of it should stop immediately. You don__ then say it must be X or Y or Z. That__ argument from ignorance. It__ common. I__ not blaming anybody; it may relate to our burning need to manufacture answers because we feel uncomfortable about being steeped in ignorance.

To learn that it's easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself.