A collection of quotes by Neil deGrasse Tyson on science, religion, humor, philosophy, spirituality, cosmology, atheism, astronomy, life, astrophysics and belief.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, writer, science communicator, TV personality and a cosmologist. Tyson studied physics at Harvard University and went on to acquire a post doctorate degree from University of Texas, before getting his astrophysics doctorate from Columbia University in 1991. He also did research at Princeton University before joining the Hayden Planetarium and eventually becoming its director. However, it was in his capacity as an author and essayist on several scientific subjects that he became world famous. Some of his well-known books include ‘Merlin’s Tour of the Universe’, ‘Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries’, ‘My Favourite Universe’, ‘Just Visiting this Planet’, ‘Universe Down to Earth’ and ‘Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontiers’ among others. He has also hosted several shows among which ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’ is a notable one. Tyson is also an extremely persuasive speaker and is known to put his point across regarding several scientific concepts quite succinctly. His writings covered several subjects like astrohphysics, politics, astronomy and viewpoints. We have tried to take a stab here by collecting the famous quotes, thoughts and sayings by Neil deGrasse Tyson which have been excerpted from his writings, books, papers and interviews. Here is a selection of Neil deGrasse Tyson quotes on science, religion, humor, philosophy, spirituality, cosmology, atheism, astronomy, life, astrophysics and belief.
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.
We are all connected; To each other, biologically. To the earth, chemically. To the rest of the universe atomically.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We spend the first year of a child's life teaching it to walk and talk and the rest of its life to shut up and sit down. There's something wrong there.
I want to put on the table, not why 85% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences reject God, I want to know why 15% of the National Academy don’t.
After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I know that the molecules in my body are traceable to phenomena in the cosmos. That makes me want to grab people on the street and say: ‘Have you HEARD THIS?
There’s as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. We are, each of us, a little universe.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
When scientifically investigating the natural world, the only thing worse than a blind believer is a seeing denier.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination
Neil deGrasse Tyson
So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Ignorance is a virus. Once it starts spreading, it can only be cured by reason. For the sake of humanity, we must be that cure.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Down there between our legs, it's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system. Who designed that?
Scientific inquiry shouldn't stop just because a reasonable explanation has apparently been found.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
The remarkable feature of physical laws is that they apply everywhere, whether or not you choose to believe in them. After the laws of physics, everything else is opinion.
When your reasons for believing something are justified ad hoc, you are left susceptible to further discoveries undermining the rationale for that belief.
Unlike what you may be told in other sectors of life, when observing the universe, size does matter, which often leads to polite ‘telescope envy’ at gatherings of amateur astronomers.
Still, our knowledge of the planets was meager, and where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Science literacy is an important part of what it is to be an informed citizen of society.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Practically every food you buy in a store for consumption by humans is genetically modified food. There are no wild, seedless watermelons. There's no wild cows.
It's okay not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything, closes the door to finding out what's really there.
We live on a cosmic speck of dust, orbiting a mediocre star in the far suburbs of a common sort of galaxy, among a hundred billion galaxies in the universe.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
After 50 years of television, there’s no other conclusion the aliens could draw, but that most humans are neurotic, death-hungry, dysfunctional idiots.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science. —EDWIN P. HUBBLE (1889–1953), The Nature of Science
Science, enabled by engineering, empowered by NASA, tells us not only that we are in the universe but that the universe is in us. And for me, that sense of belonging elevates, not denigrates, the ego.
If we don't act , we're just standing still. and the act of standing still is the same as moving backwards when everyone else is in motion all around us, around the world
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Let there be no doubt that as they are currently practiced, there is no common ground between science and religion.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
I look forward to the day when the solar system becomes our collective backyard—explored not only with robots, but with the mind, body, and soul of our species.
It's okay not to know all the answers. It's better to admit our ignorance than to believe answers that might be wrong. Pretending to know everything closes the door to finding out what's already there.
The day gets about one second longer every 67,000 years.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
When you organize extraordinary missions, you attract people of extraordinary talent who might not have been inspired by or attracted to the goal of saving the world from cancer or hunger or pestilence.
 to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive )
, The Nature of Science )
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