“Those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective.”

—  Carl Sagan

Introduction (p. 7)
The Dragons of Eden (1977)
Source: Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

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Carl Sagan 365
American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science ed… 1934–1996

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Context: I am well aware of how anarchic much of what I say may sound. Expressing myself thus abstractly and briefly, I may seem to despair of the very notion of truth. But I beseech you to reserve your judgment until we see it applied to the details which lie before us. I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

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