Look at the pale blue dot in the image. It's planet Earth. Taken in 1990 by @NASAVoyager from 6 billion km away, it inspired the great astronomer & communicator Carl Sagan to write this extraordinary passage, very apt for today's world: "Look again at that dot... (1/10) 
"That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and... (2/10)
"economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals,... (3/10)
"every corrupt politician, every 'superstar', every 'supreme leader', every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled... (4/10)
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled... (4/10)
"by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants... (5/10)
"of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged... (6/10)
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged... (6/10)
"by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. (7/10)
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. (7/10)
"There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. (8/10)
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. (8/10)
"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." (9/10)
These profound words were written by Carl Sagan, co-founder of The Planetary Society @exploreplanets, in his brilliant book "Pale Blue Dot".
They are very apt for the times we live in, and provide a healthy dose of perspective, for anyone in any walk of life. (10/10)
They are very apt for the times we live in, and provide a healthy dose of perspective, for anyone in any walk of life. (10/10)
