“Science is […] a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.”

—  Carl Sagan

Charlie Rose: An Interview with Carl Sagan http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/4553, May 27, 1996.
Context: Science is [... ] a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes ambling along.

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

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