Putting it into perspective: Carl Sagan, on what would have been his 82nd birthday

Long live tolerance, personal responsibility, care for the human community and for the environment on which we depend for our existence. May humanism flourish for the sake of us all.

(2:21) “Our planet is a lonely speck in a 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.
(2:57) 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. 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.”