Source: Cosmos (1980), p. 282
Context: 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.
Lorin Morgan-Richards (1975) American poet, cartoonist, and children's writer
Regarding his ancestry influencing his work; as quoted in "Americymru" http://americymru.blogspot.com/2010/08/interview-with-lorin-morgan-richards.html "An Interview With Lorin Morgan-Richards” (25 August 2010).
“The wisdom of our ancestors.”
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman
Burke is credited by some with the first use of this phrase, in Observations on a Late Publication on Present State of the Nation (1769), p. 516; also in Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents (1770) and Discussion on the Traitorous Correspondence Bill (1793)
1760s
Anna J. Cooper (1858–1964) African-American author, educator, speaker and scholar
Source: A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892), p. 53
“Wisdom is the power to put our time and our knowledge to the proper use.”
Tom Watson (1874–1956) American businessman
“But science is permitted because this wisdom is like a ladder to climb to the Torah wisdom.”
Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1512–1609) Czech rabbi
Netiv Hatorah 14
“A mind forever Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
