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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

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The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; whence proceeds sciences which may be called "sciences as...more

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Understanding is a kind of ecstasy

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We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.

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In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie.[Dedication to Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, in...more

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Lashley also reported no apparent change in the general behavior of a rat when significant fractions—say 10 percent—of its brain were removed. But no ...more

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Somewhere in the steaming jungles of the Carboniferous Period there emerged an organism that for the first time in the history of the world had more i...more

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As in all such technological nightmares, the principal task is to foresee what is possible; to educate use and misuse; and to prevent its organization...more

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with rare exceptions (chiefly the social insects), mammals and birds are the only organisms to devote substantial attention to the care of their young...more

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Natural selection has served as a kind of intellectual sieve, producing brains and intelligences increasingly competent to deal with the laws of natur...more

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It is precisely our plasticity, our long childhood, that prevents a slavish adherence to genetically preprogrammed behavior in human beings more than ...more

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Those mothers with hereditary large pelvises were able to bear large-brained babies who because of their superior intelligence were able to compete su...more

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MacLean has shown that the R-complex plays an important role in aggressive behavior, territoriality, ritual and the establishment of social hierarchie...more

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For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

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Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding.