Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science QUOTES

2 " Can you be sure that others have not come before you and destroyed the pristine state of the native myth? Can you be sure that the natives are not humoring you or pulling your leg? Bronislaw Malinowski thought he had discovered a people in the Trobriant Islands who had not worked out the connection between sexual intercourse and childbirth. When asked how children were conceived, they supplied him with an elaborate mythic structure prominently featuring celestial intervention. Amazed, Malinowski objected that was not how it was done at all, and supplied them instead with the version so popular in the West today – including a nine-month gestation period. “Impossible,” replied the Melanesians. “Do you not see that woman over there with her six-month-old child? Her husband has been on an extended voyage to another island for two years.” Is it more likely that the Melanesians were ignorant of the begetting of children or that they were gently chiding Malinowski? If some peculiar-looking stranger came into my town and asked ME where babies came from, I’d certainly be tempted to tell him about storks and cabbages. Prescientific people are people. Individually they are as clever as we are. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

4 " Understanding is a kind of ecstasy "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

6 " All inquiries carry with them some element of risk. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

8 " In a novel of ideas, the ideas have to work. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

10 " Both Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The remark has worldwide application. But the lack is not in intelligence, which is in plentiful supply; rather, the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

12 " Anger at queries about our beliefs is the body’s warning signal: here lies unexamined and probably dangerous doctrinal baggage. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

14 " In any case, we do not advance the human cause by refusing to consider ideas that make us frightened. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

16 " I believe in Spinoza’s God, who revealed himself in the harmony of all being, not in the God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of men”—a more subtle religious view embraced by "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

18 " Prejudice means literally pre-judgment, the rejection of a contention out of hand, before examining the evidence. Prejudice is the result of powerful emotions, not of sound reasoning. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science

20 " والكون يجبر الذين يعيشون فيه على أن يفهموه. وتلك المخلوقات التي تنظر إلى الخبرات اليومية وكأنها مجرد اختلاط مشوش بغير نظام - ودون إمكانية التنبؤ بالأحداث - هي في خطر ماحق. فالكون ينتمي إلى أولئك الذين لديهم تصور له ولو بصورة جزئية. "

― Carl Sagan , Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science