Carl Sagan in The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, says, (paraphrased):

Our local star is orbitted by four large masses and some insignificant debris. We're on the third piece of debris, whose surface is covered by a patina, a thin vaneer, of life.

Carl Sagan in The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, says, (paraphrased):

Our local star is orbitted by four large masses and some insignificant debris. We're on the third piece of debris, whose surface is covered by a petina, a thin vaneer, of life.