“Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
Source: Cosmos (1980), p. 332
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Carl Sagan 365
American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science ed… 1934–1996Related quotes

[Raman, C. V., Chandralekha, Why the Sky is Blue: Dr. C.V. Raman Talks about Science, http://books.google.com/books?id=LOC3vbnTgHYC&pg=PT1, 2010, Tulika Books, 978-81-8146-846-8, 17]
Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
Source: Star Maker (1937), Chapter XIII: The Beginning and the End; 3. The Supreme Moment and After (p. 162)

“Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.”
Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt.
Section 98
See also Esse quam videri
Source: Laelius De Amicitia – Laelius On Friendship (44 BC)
Source: The Rise of Endymion (1997), Chapter 33 (p. 684)