Intelligent Life Quotes

“I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.”
― Arthur C. Clarke

“…only in the few universes that are like ours would intelligent beings develop and ask the question: “Why is the universe the way we see it?” The answer is then simple: If it had been any different, we would not be here!”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

“It is surely unreasonable to credit that only one small star in the immensity of the universe is capable of developing and supporting intelligent life. But we shall not get to them and they will not come to us.”
― P.D. James, The Children of Men

“I hope there is life elsewhere in the universe.
I don't care about aliens and advanced technology.
I just want there to be one planet that is all moss.
A perfect sphere of soft, green carpet.
I hope it exists and that no human foot ever dents its perfect, plush surface.”
― Jarod K. Anderson, Love Notes From The Hollow Tree

“For a long time, humans have wondered about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets while ignoring the intelligent life on this one. Orcas have a language and a culture that predates ours, so how do we justify imprisoning them or, more importantly, destroying their habitat?”
― Mark Leiren-Young, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World

“I firmly disagree with anyone who says humans are the most advanced, or the most intelligent species on the planet. In fact, only three animals have ever threatened to kill me: humans, their dogs, and a particularly aggressive species of house spider.”
― Israel Morrow, Gods of the Flesh: A Skeptic's Journey Through Sex, Politics and Religion

“So, whether the aliens explore with chemistry or with radio waves, they might come to the same conclusion: a planet where there’s advanced technology must be populated with intelligent life-forms, who may occupy themselves discovering how the universe works and how to apply its laws for personal or public gain.

Looking more closely at Earth’s atmospheric fingerprints, human biomarkers will also include sulfuric, carbonic, and nitric acids, and other components of smog from the burning of fossil fuels. If the curious aliens happen to be socially, culturally, and technologically more advanced than we are, then they will surely interpret these biomarkers as convincing evidence for the absence of intelligent life on Earth.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

“We don't know how to communicate meaningfully with chimpanzees. Assessing the effort we invest in trying to get big brained mammals to do what we say, we tend to measure their intelligence by an ability to understand us, rather than measure our intelligence by an ability to understand them. Since we can't meaningfully communicate with any other species on earth, not even those genetically closest to us, how audacious of us to think we can converse at all with intelligent alien life upon first meeting them?”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson, Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization

“It is triste to contemplate the winding down of the Universe into a cold, dark, lonely place, but we are a young species in a young Universe, with vast reaches of time before us. It is certainly true that there are countless worlds out there that could support life as we know it, and probably countless more that could support life as we don’t know it. It may be that the Universe is teeming with life waiting to make our acquaintance. Or, we may well be the first ones in our galaxy to make the leap to sentience. The vast distance between stars poses a severe barrier to individuals or even societies making the journey. Protoplasm is just too fragile and short-lived a medium to be up to the task of such voyaging. However, at a tenth the speed of light, the whole galaxy can be traversed in a million years. That’s a long time for protoplasm, but it is not a stretch to think of the data that makes us what we are—embodied perhaps in silicon or some other sturdy information-bearing material and reconstituted at destination—spreading throughout the galaxy, hopping from planet to planet along the way like Pacific Islanders in their canoes. If life—or complex life—is rare, it may well be our destiny to seed the Universe with an expanding wave of consciousness. But it is to be hoped that we will leave abundant worlds alone to develop their own destinies. There are worlds enough, and time.”
― Raymond T. Pierrehumbert, Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet”
― Stephen Hawking