“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.”

— Carl Sagan , book Cosmos

44 min 50 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Blues For a Red Planet [Episode 5]
Context: The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. Information distilled over 4 billion years of biological evolution. Incidentally, all the organisms on the Earth are made essentially of that stuff. An eyedropper full of that liquid could be used to make a caterpillar or a petunia if only we knew how to put the components together.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 29, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together." by Carl Sagan?

Carl Sagan 365

American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science ed… 1934–1996

Related quotes

“We are made with the atoms of the things that we consider beautiful or those which we admire and hate on a daily basis.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“how beautiful is the universe
when something digestible meets
with an eager digestion
how sweet the embrace
when atom rushes to the arms
of waiting atom”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

the robin and the worm

“The reason that I call my doctrine logical atomism is because the atoms that I wish to arrive at as the sort of last residue in analysis are logical atoms and not physical atoms. Some of them will be what I call "particulars" – such things as little patches of color or sounds, momentary things – and some of them will be predicates or relations and so on.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1910s, The Philosophy of Logical Atomism (1918)

“Sangamon’s Principle,” I said. “The simpler the molecule, the better the drug. So the best drug is oxygen. Only two atoms. The second-best, nitrous oxide—a mere three atoms. The third-best, ethanol—nine. Past that, you’re talking lots of atoms.”
“So?”
“Atoms are like people. Get lots of them together, never know what they’ll do.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 1

“The inconsistency of first explaining matter by atoms and then explaining atoms by matter was only slowly realised, and it is only comparatively recently that we have come to see that there is nothing paradoxical in the fact that an atom or an electron, which are not matter, may have properties different from those of matter, and must be allowed to do things that a material particle could not do.”

Willem de Sitter (1872–1934) Dutch cosmologist

Kosmos (1932), Above is Beginning Quote of the Last Chapter: Relativity and Modern Theories of the Universe -->

“Atomic war is inevitable. It will destroy half of humanity: it is going to destroy immense human riches. It is very possible. The atomic war is going to provoke a true inferno on Earth. But it will not impede Communism.”

J. Posadas (1912–1981) Argentine Trotskyist (1912-1981)

Attributed
War is Not the End of the World, 1972

“It’s a poor atom blaster that won’t point both ways.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 18
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“A Third World War? With an atom bomb? He said it, with an atom bomb. There would be no more world. The world would end. Humanity would no longer exist. I think he has to be put in an asylum. He has to be put in an mental asylum.”

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) 48th President of Venezuela

Responding to President George W. Bush remarks on Iran, November 21, 2007 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-chavez-bush/chavez-says-bush-belongs-in-asylum-for-ww3-comment-idUSL2062324220071120
2007

“An atom blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Part V, The Merchant Princes, section 13
The Foundation series (1951–1993), Foundation (1951)

“Atomic physics, was the worst thing that happened in the 20th century.”

Gustav Metzger (1926–2017) Artist and political activist

Gustav Metzger: 'Destroy, and you create', 2012

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Carl Sagan 365

Related quotes

Related topics