“It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”
-Carl Sagan, from a public lecture given on October 13, 1994 at Cornell University
If you’ve never heard or read Carl Sagan’s reflections on the NASA photograph known as The Pale Blue Dot, you owe it to yourself to do so. I feel it brings into light our incredible smallness in the vast universe better than anything else I’ve ever heard, read or seen. When I think of the many horrible things that happen on our small planet everyday, and I think of this photo and Carl Sagan’s words, I just can’t fathom the reasons that so many people have for the horrible things they do.
The quote I included above came from this page, where I originally learned about The Pale Blue Dot. You can read the entire thing there, which I suggest you do. Wikipedia has a similar talk given by Mr. Sagan, taken from a different speech in 1996.
Finally, the following video from YouTube features Carl Sagan’s words in his own voice, taken from the audiobook edition of his book, Pale Blue Dot. I have not read it, but it’s on my list to check out some day.