Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.

The Platonists and their Christian successors held the peculiar notion that the Earth was tainted and somehow nasty, while the heavens were perfect and divine. The fundamental idea that the Earth is a planet, that we are citizens of the Universe, was rejected and forgotten.

UFOs: The reliable cases are uninteresting and in the interesting cases are unreliable.

Frederick Douglas taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

She had studied the universe all her life, but had overlooked its clearest message: For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.