Meet Carl Sagan: The Pale Blue Dot

The candle in the dark

Sagan's great insight was that wonder and skepticism are one discipline, not rivals. Cosmos kindled awe in half a billion viewers; The Demon-Haunted World armed them with a baloney-detection kit. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence — and the universe, honestly seen, out-wonders every fantasy.

Four billion miles

In 1990 he persuaded NASA to turn Voyager 1's camera homeward: Earth, one pale blue pixel in a sunbeam. 'Everyone you love, everyone you know... on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.' No sermon on humility and responsibility has ever matched it.

Why they belong at your table

Seat him when cynicism or credulity — either one — is winning. He keeps wonder and rigor in the same mind, where they belong.