Cosmos question

If you haven't read this book, your literary life is incomplete. If you don't love it, your appreciation for literature is deficient

He's one of my very favorite scientists and I'd say # 1 science author.

The universe is an event. And event in progress. And as Sagan said - we all are made of the same stuff! So - enjoy your little.. 'event'...

I am afraid I have to disagree. We are certainly made of "star stuff", but I do not consider that to be particularly profound. The first sentence appears to break the rules of logic, and the last sentence is worse, because it assumes the cosmos is sentient (or alternatively it uses terms in a way that differ from general use, in which case it is senseless). Sagan was a great popularizer of science, and he seems to have been a great human being, but let us not descend into hagiography.

I adore Sagan and his optimism, and I do especially like this quote. The book is worth reading, however, the series does an excellent job of covering the material.

I adore that quote. But I do not know about the most important statement part - seems absurd to me. :)

I prefer "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." :)

It's one of the most important quotes in my life, and so many others use it and live by it too, e.g. Brian Cox, Neil Degrasse Tyson, etc.

It's very humbling, yet at the same time very inspiring and it really puts human life into perspective. As Carl Sagan has said before: "it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

If we live in a holographic universe, which as our understanding of science is increasingly supporting and, it is fractal (again, being supported by science), then, why wouldn't the statement: "the cosmos is also within us" not be science-based, intuitively understood by Sagan and profound, all at the same time?

The Poem by Blake: Auguries of Innocence, first stanza I believe, says it all:
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour".

I'm not religious: just in awe of the amazing cosmos around us and/or within us. 'As above: So below', is a FRACTAL statement. Although I mainly write about evolutionary (non-Darwinian) science because that is where the evidence is taking us and the most current discoveries in biology are quantum-like and evolution is fractal. See Free e-booklet which refers to some research introducing readers to these new insights:

No. That statement tells us more about the author than the universe.

Sagan projected his own yearning for self-knowledge on to an uncaring universe. Having categorically rejected God, he found a ready substitute in "Cosmos".

It's worth mentioning that Sagan was a marijuana user. He was probably stoned when he came up with this profound revelation.

Sounds like some sort of religious gibberish. Ironic, considering that Sagan himself was openly hostile towards mystical.