“ And we, we who embody the local eyes and ears and thoughts and feelings of the cosmos, we’ve begun, at last, to wonder about our origins. Star-stuff contemplating the stars, organized collections of ten billion billion billion atoms, contemplating the evolution of matter, tracing that long path by which it arrived at consciousness here at the planet Earth, and perhaps, throughout the cosmos. Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed, not just to ourselves, but also to that cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we sprang.
—
Carl Sagan, among the greatest organized collections of 10 billion billion billion atoms ever to have existed.
