Great Throughts Treasury

"All of the concerted SETI efforts over the last 40 some years are equivalent to scooping a single glass of water from the oceans, and no one would decide that the ocean is without fish on the basis of one glass of water."

"Are we alone?"

"From my perspective, we live on a fragile island of life in a universe of possibilities."

"I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company."

"If SETI does nothing but change the perspective of humans on this planet, then it will be one of the most profound endeavors in history."

"Is it really just us? Are we alone in this vast universe of energy, and matter, and chemistry, and physics?"

"The story of humans is the story of ideas. Scientific ideas that shine light into dark corners, ideas that we embrace rationally and irrationally, ideas for which we?ve lived and died and killed and been killed, ideas that have vanished in history, and ideas that have been set in dogma. It?s the story of nations, of ideologies, of territories, and of conflicts among them."

"We are not the pinnacle of evolution. We are not the determined product of billions of years of evolutionary plotting and planning. We are one outcome of a continuing adaptational process. We are residents of one small planet in the corner of the milky way galaxy."

"The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence: Necessarily a Long-term Strategy"

"Ultimately, we actually all belong to only one tribe, to Earthlings."

"We misuse language, and talk about the ?ascent? of man. We understand the scientific basis for the interrelatedness of life but our ego hasn?t caught up yet."

"We are the products of a billion-year lineage of wandering stardust. We ? all of us ? are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from."

"We, all of us, are what happens when a primordial mixture of hydrogen and helium evolves for so long that it begins to ask where it came from."

"YES, you can have it ALL - just don't expect it to be easy (actually it won't just be hard, it will be massively difficult, but worth every struggle). Try to ignore gender biased counseling, and do whatever it is you love to do."