quote · Legacy record
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore - in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their 'low contracted prejudices.' And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment - until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace, rather than fear, the cosmic perspective.
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore - in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their 'low contracted prejudices.' And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment - until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace, rather than fear, the cosmic perspective.
Approximate author period: c. 1958 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Neil deGrasse Tyson
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1958 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 1958; activity date not established; Wikidata Q310903, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q310903 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 62467; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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