"In the language of cybernetics, maintaining reactions can be outlined as follows: the sensing material receives information about the external environment in the form of coded signals. This information is reprocessed and sent in the form of new signals through defined channels, or networks. This new information brings about an internal reorganization of the system which contributes to the preservation of its integrity. The mechanism which reprocesses the information is called the control system. It consists of a vast number of input and output elements, connected by channels through which the signals are transmitted. The information can be stored in a recall or memory system, which may consist of separate elements, each of which can be in one of several stable states. The particular state of the element varies, under the influence of the input signals. When a number of such elements are in certain specified states, information is, in effect, recorded in the form of a text of finite length, using an alphabet with a finite number of characters. These processes underlie contemporary electronic computing machines and are, in a number of respects, strongly analogous to biological memory systems." (Carl Sagan, "Intelligent Life in the Universe", 1966)
"I find it more difficult, but also much more fun, to get the right answer by indirect reasoning and before all the evidence is in. It’s what a theoretician does in science. But the conclusions drawn in this way are obviously more risky than those drawn by direct measurement, and most scientists withhold judgment until there is more direct evidence available. The principal function of such detective work - apart from entertaining the theoretician - is probably to so annoy and enrage the observationalists that they are forced, in a fury of disbelief, to perform the critical measurements." (Carl Sagan, "The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective", 1975)
"In a way, science might be described as paranoid thinking applied to Nature: we are looking for natural conspiracies, for connections among apparently disparate data." (Carl Sagan, "The Dragons of Eden", 1977)
"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." (Carl Sagan, "Cosmos", 1980)
"Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgement, the manner in which information is coordinated and used." (Carl Sagan, "Cosmos", 1980)
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." (Carl Sagan, "Cosmos", 1980)
"A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge." (Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot: a Vision of the Human Future in Space", 1994)
"Science demands a tolerance for ambiguity. Where we are ignorant, we withhold belief. Whatever annoyance the uncertainty engenders serves a higher purpose: It drives us to accumulate better data. This attitude is the difference between science and so much else. Science offers little in the way of cheap thrills. The standards of evidence are strict. But when followed they allow us to see far, illuminating even a great darkness." (Carl Sagan, "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space", 1994)
"Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science - by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans - teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us. We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error bars a little, and to add to the body of data to which error bars apply." (Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", 1995)
"Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations." (Carl Sagan, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", 1995)
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