We define ourselves as intelligent. That’s odd, because we’re doing the definition – We’re creating our own definition and saying, ‘We are intelligent!’ – Neil deGrasse Tyson
People generally don’t recognize how long it takes to conceive, publish, and write a book. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
All the traditional STEM fields, the science, technology, engineering, and math fields, are stoked when you dream big in an agency such as NASA. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Venus transit is not a spectacle the way a total solar eclipse is a spectacle. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Part of what it is to be scientifically-literate, it’s not simply, ‘Do you know what DNA is? Or what the Big Bang is?’ That’s an aspect of science literacy. The biggest part of it is do you know how to think about information that’s presented in front of you. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
We account for one-sixth of the forces of gravity we see in the universe. There is no known objects accounting for most of the effective gravity in the universe. Something is making stuff move that is not anything we have ever touched. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
It’s actually the minority of religious people who rejects science or feel threatened by it or want to sort of undo or restrict the… where science can go. The rest, you know, are just fine with science. And it has been that way ever since the beginning. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The history of exploration has never been driven by exploration. But Columbus himself was a discoverer. So was Magellan. But the people who wrote checks were not. They had other motivations. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
There are thousands of asteroids whose orbit in the Solar System crosses that of Earth. And we have a little acronym for them – NEOs: near Earth objects. And our biggest goal is to try to catalogue them, so we know in advance if one is going to put us at risk. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
We explore our environment, more than we are compelled to utter poetry, when we’re toddlers. We start doing that later. Before that happens, every child is a scientist. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
It’s the great tragedy – people employed in ways that don’t fully tap everything they do best in life. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
We didn’t go to the moon to explore or because it was in our DNA or because we’re Americans. We went because we were at war and we felt a threat. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
All Plutophiles are based in America. If you go to other countries, they have much less of an attachment to either the existence or preservation of Pluto as a planet. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The universe is almost 14 billion years old, and, wow! Life had no problem starting here on Earth! I think it would be inexcusably egocentric of us to suggest that we’re alone in the universe. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
If the United States commits to the goal of reaching Mars, it will almost certainly do so in reaction to the progress of other nations – as was the case with NASA, the Apollo program, and the project that became the International Space Station. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The universe is hilarious! Like, Venus is 900 degrees. I could tell you it melts lead. But that’s not as fun as saying, ‘You can cook a pizza on the windowsill in nine seconds.’ And next time my fans eat pizza, they’re thinking of Venus! – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Adults, who outnumber kids four or five to one, are in charge. We wield the resources, run the world, and completely thwart kids’ creativity. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
I don’t care what town you’re born in, what city, what country. If you’re a child, you are curious about your environment. You’re overturning rocks. You’re plucking leaves off of trees and petals off of flowers, looking inside, and you’re doing things that create disorder in the lives of the adults around you. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
I’m often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science? And I have only one bit of advice. Get out of their way. Kids are born curious. Period. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
If Mars formed life, then life on Earth could have been seeded by life on Mars, making every life form on Earth descended from Martians. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
There is always a place I can take someone’s curiosity and land where they end up enlightened when we’re done. That’s my challenge as an educator. No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Innovations in science and technology are the engines of the 21st-century economy; if you care about the wealth and health of your nation tomorrow, then you’d better rethink how you allocate taxes to fund science. The federal budget needs to recognize this. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Every account of a higher power that I’ve seen described, of all religions that I’ve seen, include many statements with regard to the benevolence of that power. When I look at the universe and all the ways the universe wants to kill us, I find it hard to reconcile that with statements of beneficence. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Some asteroids have us in their sights. Be nice to sort of go near them and find out what they’re made of, possibly tag their ears so they’re always broadcasting to us their location. In case one of their trajectories head straight for us, we’ll know well in advance to do something about it. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The idea that science is just some luxury that you’ll get around to if you can afford it is regressive to any future a country might dream for itself. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
The universe is large and old, and the ingredients for life as we know it are everywhere, so there’s no reason to think that Earth would be unique in that regard. Whether of not the life became intelligent is a different question, and we’ll see if we find that. – Neil deGrasse Tyson
There’s a lot of memorization that goes on in school. You memorize vocabulary words and all these sorts of things. – Neil deGrasse Tyson