# Quote — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

> Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. Public libraries depend on voluntary contributions. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

- Author: [Carl Sagan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan.md)
- Book: [Cosmos](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos.md)
- Page: 282
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#Cosmos_(1980)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/books-permit-us-to-voyage

## More from this book

> I have...a terrible need...shall I say the word?...of religion. Then I go out at night and paint the stars.

p. 217 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/i-have-a-terrible.md)

> For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations.

p. 173 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/for-a-long.md)

> If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

p. 218 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/cosmos/if-you-wish.md)