‘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. It is up to us. It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, 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 and other and to preserve and cherish this pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.’
~ Carl Sagan
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
And of course:
“Look again at 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”…
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:05 am
Anyone remember that Walt Kelly cartoon:
http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm
For the benefit of the historically challenged, “We have met the enemy, and they are ours” is from a letter written by Cpt. Oliver Perry in the US War of 1812: “We have met the enemy and they are ours: two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop.” So as you can see, Pogo takes the quote out of context (captured enemy vessels), but Kelly did change the wording.
April 26th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
[...] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post on Earth Day | The Intersection | Discover MagazineHere’s a small excerpt… human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one and other and to preserve and cherish this pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.’ ~ Carl Sagan … [...]