This aphorism fuses two impulses Carl Sagan modeled throughout his career: an exuberant openness to the unknown and a steady moral compass. In Pale Blue Dot (1994), he framed exploration as a humbling perspective shift—seeing Earth as a tiny mote that obliges us to be tender with one another. Thus curiosity is not merely a private delight; it is a public commitment to learn in ways that safeguard what we discover and those affected by our discoveries. [...]
