Neil deGrasse Tyson: Quotes about science

Neil deGrasse Tyson is American astrophysicist and science communicator. Explore interesting quotes on science.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: 178 quotes14 likes

“Science needs the light of free expression to flourish. It depends on the fearless questioning of authority, and the open exchange of ideas.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Source: Cosmos

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Quotes from Bill Maher show website, quotes of the show, Google searches showing poor results before February 4th (pages which were updated since their original, pre-feb. 4th posting date). Why would-be engineers end up as English majors, May 21, 2011 http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/17/education.stem.graduation/index.html, Skeptic Blog: "Reality Check", April 20, 2011 http://www.skepticblog.org/2011/04/20/reality-check/, Google Search for quote prior to Feb. 4th, only results are from pages which were updated after the "posted" date https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+good+thing+about+science+is+that+it%E2%80%99s+true+whether+or+not+you+believe+in+it.%22&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&sa=X&ei=m8AwU9KKNc_8oASnhYCoAg&ved=0CBoQpwUoBjgU&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F2000%2Ccd_max%3A2%2F3%2F2011&tbm=, 2010s

“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.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Source: Death by Black Hole - And Other Cosmic Quandaries

“I don’t have an issue with what you do in the church, but I’m gonna be up in your face if you’re gonna knock on my science classroom and tell me they’ve got to teach what you’re teaching in your Sunday school. Because that’s when we’re gonna fight!”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

“The Theory of Evolution, like the Theory of Gravity, is a scientific fact. Evolution really happened. Accepting our kinship with all life on earth is not only solid science, in my view, it's also a soaring spiritual experience. (From the second Cosmos: ASO episode, Some of the Things That Molecules Do.)”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

“The great tragedy is that they're removing art completely, not because they're putting more science in, but because they can't afford the art teachers or because somebody thinks it's not useful. An enlightened society has all of this going on within it. It's part of what distinguishes what it is to be human from other life forms on Earth — that we have culture.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Global Ideas from Pluto's Challenger (May 21, 2009)

“Cosmologists have plenty of ego — how can a person not be ego-driven when it's your job to deduce what brought the universe into existence? But without data, their explanations were just tall tales. In this modern era of cosmology, each new observation, each morsel of data wields a two-edged sword: it enables cosmology to thrive on the kind of foundation that so much of the rest of science enjoys, but it also constrains theories that people thought up when there wasn't enough data to say whether they were wrong or not. No science achieves maturity without it.Let there be cosmology.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Let There Be Light, Natural History Magazine, October 2003, 2010-12-07 http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/read/2003/10/01/let-there-be-light, 2000s

“Knowing how things work is important, but I think that's an incomplete view of what science literacy is or, at least, should be. Science literacy is an outlook. It's more of a lens through which you observe what goes on around you.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Global Ideas from Pluto's Challenger (May 21, 2009)

“I am trying to convince people--not only the public, but lawmakers and people in power--that investing in the frontier of science, however remote it may seem in its relevance to what you're doing today, is a way of stockpiling the seed corns of future harvests of this nation… Advancing a frontier--history has shown--has advanced a culture ever since the industrial revolution got underway.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

At an interview with Stephen Colbert at Montclair Kimberley Academy on January 29th, 2010.
2010s

“Ibn al-Haytham was the first person ever to set down the rules of science. -S01E05”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

“Science is a cooperative enterprise, spanning the generations. It's the passing of a torch from teacher, to student, to teacher. A community of minds reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars. (From the first Cosmos: ASO episode, Standing Up in the Milky Way.)”

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)

Neil deGrasse Tyson

From the first Cosmos: ASO episode, Standing Up in the Milky Way.
2010s, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
Variant: Science is a cooperative enterprise, spanning the generations. It's the passing of a torch from teacher, to student, to teacher. A community of minds reaching back to antiquity and forward to the stars.