The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and low self-esteem interact to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin.
Source: Parade, 3/6/1993 with Ann Druyan
-- Carl Sagan, (Nov 9 1934-1996), US astronomer; He provided insight in the origin of life by producing amino acids in a mixture of chemicals irradiated by ultraviolet light; wrote Contact.