Carl Sagan - We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology
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Welcome to The Daily Quote – a podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, for June 4th. Now, June 4th may not get the same press as New Year's Day or Groundhog Day (and frankly, one of those is more reliable than the other), but today we’re celebrating something with a bit more soul: Audacity to Hope Day. It's a day that asks you—no, dares you—to be bold enough to hope. Not just the kind of hope you have when you’re down to your last coffee pod and praying there’s a spare box in the pantry. I'm talking about the deep, resilient kind of hope that propels humanity forward. And that brings us to today’s quote. It comes from Carl Sagan, the famed astronomer and eternal optimist of the cosmos, who once said:
“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.”
Now, you might be thinking, Andrew, that doesn't sound very hopeful... But stay with me. What Sagan does here—very slyly, in that signature dry Sagan way—is remind us of just how far we've come. We’ve built a civilization balanced delicately on satellites, smart devices, and quantum mechanics, and the average person still thinks "quark" is a kind of cheese. That’s not a critique; it’s a miracle. It’s the audacity to trust—no, to hope—that even if most people don’t know exactly how the Wi-Fi works, we’ll keep building things that make life better.
We've gone from fire to fiber optics in what is, cosmically speaking, the blink of an eye. Humanity’s arc, if nothing else, is stubbornly upward. And that’s the spirit of today: even in moments of uncertainty, we push forward. Because deep down, we believe that things can improve, that we can improve. That’s what Audacity to Hope Day is about.
So, as you go through your day, maybe take a second to appreciate the small miracles—the ones powered by progress, and the ones powered by your own quiet resilience. You’re a part of this great, messy, brilliant experiment we call humanity... and I think that’s worth being hopeful about. Until next time, keep your chin up, your curiosity alive, and don’t forget—hope isn’t naive. It’s necessary.
I'm Andrew McGivern, signing off for today, but I'll be back tomorrow, with another Daily Quote.