WIST Quotations

Sagan, Carl -- The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, ch. 26 (1973)

Dave — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 22:50:27 +0000

The fate of individual human beings may not now be connected in a deep way with the rest of the universe, but the matter out of which each of us is made is intimately tied to processes that occurred immense intervals of time and enormous distances in space away from us. Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, ch. 26 (1973)
(Source)

Sagan riffed off the "star-stuff" theme during his 1980 PBS TV series, Cosmos, ep. 9:

The Cosmos was originally all hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements were made in red giants and supernovas, and then blown off into space, where they were available for subsequent generations of stars and planets. Our sun is probably a 3rd generation star. Except for hydrogen and helium, every atom in the Sun and the Earth was synthesized in other stars. The silicon in the rocks, the oxygen in the air, the carbon in our DNA, the gold in our banks, the uranium in our arsenals, were all made thousands of light years away and billions of years ago. Our planet, our society, and we ourselves, are built of star-stuff.

In the companion book for the series, chapter 9, he included this variation:

All the elements of the Earth except hydrogen and some helium have been cooked by a kind of stellar alchemy billions of years ago in stars, some of which are today inconspicuous white dwarfs on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy. The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.

He also included this phrase toward the end of the TV series (specific episode unknown):

Because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.

A dozen years later, D. C. Fontana combined these thoughts in her script for Babylon 5, 2x04 "A Distant Star" [Prod. 204] (1994-11-16):

DELENN: The molecules of your body are the same molecules that make up this station, and the nebula outside, that burn inside the stars themselves. We are star-stuff, we are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out.

Kazantzakis, Nikos -- Zorba the Greek, ch. 23 (1946)

Dave — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 18:49:55 +0000

What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) Greek writer and philosopher
Zorba the Greek, ch. 23 (1946)

Poe, Edgar Allan -- Marginalia, June 1849 (1981)

Dave — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 13:08:07 +0000

In looking at the world as it is, we shall find it folly to deny that, to worldly success, a surer path is Villainy than Virtue.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) American author, poet, editor, literary critic
Marginalia, June 1849 (1981)

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 191 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Dave — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:57:25 +0000

Whatever you can lose, reckon of no account.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 191 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 130 (1882) [tr. Hill (2018)]

Dave — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:52:46 +0000

The Christian determination to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.

[Der christliche Entschluss, die Welt hässlich und schlecht zu finden, hat die Welt hässlich und schlecht gemacht.]

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 3, § 130 (1882) [tr. Hill (2018)]
(Source)

Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.

(Source (German)). Alternate translations:

The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad, has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Common (1911)]

The Christian resolve to find the world ugly and bad, has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Kaufmann (1974)]

The Christian decision to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
[tr. Nauckhoff (2001)]