Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot OFFICIAL

that's here that's home it's us in it everyone you love everyone you know everyone you've ever heard of every human being who ever lived their lives together or joy and suffering thousands of safe religions ideologies and economic doctrines every hunter and gatherer every hero and coward every creator and destroyer of civilization every king and peasant every young couple in love every mother and father hopeful child inventor and explorer every moral teacher every corrupt politician every superstar every Supreme Leader every saint and sinner In the history of our species, a speck of dust lived there suspended in a ray of sun.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Let us think of the rivers of blood shed by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a Do not think of the infinite cruelties which the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel inflict on the barely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill each other, how fervent their hatreds, our postures, our imagined personal importance, the deception. We who have a privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of

pale

light our planet is a solitary point in the great cosmic darkness that envelops us in our darkness in all this immensity there is no indication that help will come from elsewhere to save us of ourselves, Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.

There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, that our species can migrate to. Visit, yes, settle, whether we still like it or not, for the moment. The Earth is where we position ourselves. It has been said that astronomy is an experience that strengthens character and humility. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human vanity than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to treat each other more kindly and to preserve and appreciate

pale

blue

. splash the only home we've ever known you in