For example, in
— Rothmus ? (@Rothmus) September 26, 2024
Other examples of the quote being attributed to Sagan appeared on Instagram in 2020 (archived), again on X later in 2024 (archived) and on Reddit in 2025 (archived).
The line is a genuine quote from an essay titled "Real Patriots Ask Questions," which first appeared in 1991 in Parade magazine, a weekly magazine distributed in newspapers across the United States. The essay also appeared as Chapter 25 in Sagan's 1995 book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark." That book, like much of Sagan's work, encouraged readers to think critically and distinguish between science and pseudoscience.
Parade magazine and "The Demon-Haunted World" credited both Sagan and Ann Druyan, Sagan's spouse and frequent collaborator, with authoring the essay.
When Snopes reached out to Druyan, she said over email that, according to her recollection, they wrote the piece because Sagan was asked to lead an Independence Day naturalization ceremony. According to Druyan, the pair's writing process was so collaborative that, ultimately, it was impossible to identify which of them wrote the quote in question. As a result, we've rated the claim that Sagan was the quote's author mostly true.
Druyan said:
Each of us contributed the various points we wished to make. We divvied up them up. I typed up or scribbled mine. Carl dictated his. Then he would dictate a draft composed of both of our work. It would be transcribed. We would each get a copy and then meet to discuss refinements and enhancements. That would lead to a new draft and so forth until neither of us were sure who wrote what. We would congratulate the other on a particular phrase and the other would frequently be sure that the credit belonged to the complimenter. Our collaborations felt seamless and that was heaven.
This was true of everything he/we wrote except for his scientific papers.
Druyan co-authored several books with Sagan, including "Comet," "Pale Blue Dot" and "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors."
"Real Patriots Ask Questions" argued that skepticism, free speech and the Bill of Rights as a whole are important for maintaining American democracy.
In the essay, on Page 429 of "The Demon-Haunted World," Sagan and Druyan listed several examples to illustrate that "great liberties" are permitted in America within certain narrowly circumscribed limits. The quote in question appears in context below (emphasis ours):
Gun collectors are free to use portraits of the Chief Justice, the Speaker of the House, or the Director of the FBI for target practice; outraged civic-minded citizens are free to burn in effigy the President of the United States.
Even if they mock Judeo-Christian-Islamic values, even if they ridicule everything most of us hold dear, devil-worshipers (if there are any) are entitled to practice their religion, so long as they break no constitutionally valid law.
A purported scientific article or popular book asserting the "superiority" of one race over another may not be censored by the government, no matter how pernicious it is; the cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
Individuals or groups are free to argue that a Jewish or Masonic conspiracy is taking over the world, or that the Federal government is in league with the Devil.
Individuals may, if they wish, praise the lives and politics of such undisputed mass murderers as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, and Mao Zedong. Even detestable opinions have a right to be heard.
Snopes previously covered other rumors regarding Sagan, including another quote credited to him from "The Demon-Haunted World."