Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said “billions and billions.” For one thing, it's too imprecise. How many billions are “billions and billions”? A few billion? Twenty billion? A hundred billion? “Billions and billions” is pretty vague...For a while, out of childish pique, I wouldn't utter the phrase, even when asked to. But I've gotten over that. So, for the record, here goes:
“Billions and billions.”" - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
Chapter 1, “Billions and Billions” (p. 10; ellipsis represents elision of half a page)
• List of misquotations
“

I never said it. Honest. Oh, I said there are maybe 100 billion galaxies and 10 billion trillion stars. It's hard to talk about the Cosmos without using big numbers. I said “billion” many times on the Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said “billions and billions.” For one thing, it's too imprecise. How many billions are “billions and billions”? A few billion? Twenty billion? A hundred billion? “Billions and billions” is pretty vague...For a while, out of childish pique, I wouldn't utter the phrase, even when asked to. But I've gotten over that. So, for the record, here goes:
“Billions and billions.”

— Carl Sagan

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I never said it. Honest. Oh, I said there are maybe 100 billion galaxies and 10 billion trillion stars. It's hard to talk about the Cosmos without using big numbers. I said “billion” many times on the Cosmos television series, which was seen by a great many people. But I never said “billions and billions.” For one thing, it's too imprecise. How many billions are “billions and billions”? A few billion? Twenty billion? A hundred billion? “Billions and billions” is pretty vague...For a while, out of childish pique, I wouldn't utter the phrase, even when asked to. But I've gotten over that. So, for the record, here goes:
“Billions and billions.”" in the context of "Chapter 1, “Billions and Billions” (p. 10; ellipsis represents elision of half a page)
• List of misquotations" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Carl Sagan" (Quotes, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millenium (1997): (1997), Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the End of the Millennium place: New York, publisher: Random House, ISBN: 0679411607, LCCN: 96052730 All page numbers from the trade paperback edition, 5th printing All italics as in the book ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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Carl Sagan

About Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan (9 November 1934 – 20 December 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect. He testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect will change the earth's climate system.