Star Gazing Quotes - Page 5

• There are innumerable worlds of different sizes. In some there is neither sun not moon, in others they are larger than in ours and others have more than one. These worlds are at irregular distances, more in one direction and less in another, and some are flourishing, others declining. Here they come into being, there they die, and they are distroyed by collision with one another. Some of the worlds have no animal or vegetable life nor any water.

  Democritus

  Distance, Animal, Moon

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• If atom stocks are inexhaustible, Greater than power of living things to count, If Nature's same creative power were present too To throw the atoms into unions - exactly as united now, Why then confess you must That other worlds exist in other regions of the sky, And different tribes of men, kinds of wild beasts.

  Lucretius

  Men, Moon, Sky

  Titus Lucretius Carus, Alban Dewes Winspear (1956). “De Rerum Natura”, New York : Harbor Press

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• It's too bad, but the way American people are, now that they have all this capability, instead of taking advantage of it, they'll probably just piss it all away.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  People, Way, Apollo

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• We are the lucky generation. We first broke our earthly bonds and ventured into space. From our descendants- perches on other planets or distant space cities, they will look back at our achievement with wonder at our courage and audacity and with appreciation at our accomplishments, which assured the future in which they live.

  Walter Cronkite

  Appreciation, Moon, Cities

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• Treading the soil of the moon, palpating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of the event, feeling in the pit of one's stomach the separation from Terra-these form the most romantic sensation an explorer has ever known . . . this is the only thing I can say about the matter. The utilitarian results do not interest me.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Moon, Space, Feelings

  N.Y. Times, 21 July 1969

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• No national sovereignty rules in outer space. Those who venture there go as envoys of the entire human race. Their quest, therefore, must be for all mankind, and what they find should belong to all mankind.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Space, Race, Quests

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1967). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966”, p.945, Best Books on

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• It's really incumbent upon us as life's agents to extend life to another planet. I think that being a multi-planet species will significantly increase the richness and scope of the human experience.

  Elon Musk

  Thinking, Moon, Agents

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• To our knowledge, life exists on only one planet, Earth. If something bad happens, it's gone. I think we should establish life on another planet-Mars in particular-but we 're not making very good progress. SpaceX is intended to make that happen.

  Elon Musk

  Thinking, Moon, Progress

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• Today the human race is a single twig on the tree of life, a single species on a single planet. Our condition can thus only be described as extremely fragile, endangered by forces of nature currently beyond our control, our own mistakes, and other branches of the wildly blossoming tree itself. Looked at this way, we can then pose the question of the future of humanity on Earth, in the solar system, and in the galaxy from the standpoint of both evolutionary biology and human nature. The conclusion is straightforward: Our choice is to grow, branch, spread and develop, or stagnate and die.

  Robert Zubrin

  Mistake, Moon, Race

  Robert Zubrin (1999). “Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization”, Tarcher

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• Once the threshold is crossed when there is a self-sustaining level of life in space, then life's long-range future will be secure irrespective of any of the risks on Earth. Will this happen before our technological civilization disintegrates, leaving this as a might-have-been? Will the self-sustaining space communities be established before a catastrophe sets back the prospect of any such enterprise, perhaps foreclosing it forever? We live at what could be a defining moment for the cosmos.

  Martin Rees

  Moon, Civilization, Space

  "Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning". Book by Martin Rees, 2003.

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• The question to ask is whether the risk of traveling to space is worth the benefit. The answer is an unequivocal yes, but not only for the reasons that are usually touted by the space community: the need to explore, the scientific return, and the possibility of commercial profit. The most compelling reason, a very long-term one, is the necessity of using space to protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.

  William E. Burrows

  Moon, Space, Compelling Reason

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• As long as we are a single-planet species, we are vulnerable to extinction by a planetwide catastrophe, natural or self-induced. Once we become a multiplanet species, our chances to live long and prosper will take a huge leap skyward.

  David Grinspoon

  Moon, Self, Long

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• The extension of life beyond Earth is the most important thing we can do as a species.

  Elon Musk

  Moon, Important, Earth

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• If man survives for as long as the least successful of the dinosaurs-those creatures whom we often deride as nature's failures-then we may be certain of this: for all but a vanishingly brief instant near the dawn of history, the word 'ship' will mean- 'spaceship.'

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Mean, Successful, Men

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• If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe as we spread into space. If we are the only intellegent beings in the galaxy we should make sure we survive and continue. . . . Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space.

  Stephen Hawking

  Moon, Years, Two

  "Abandon Earth or Face Extinction, Stephen Hawking Warns -- Again", www.foxnews.com. August 9, 2010.

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• More important than the material issue . . . the opening of a new, high frontier will challenge the best that is in us . . . the new lands waiting to be built in space will give us new freedom to search for better governments, social systems, and ways of life.

  Gerard K. O'Neill

  Moon, Land, Issues

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• I'm coming back in... and it's the saddest moment of my life.

  Edward Higgins White

  Space Flight, Moments, Coming Back

  "Fictional character: Ed White". "From the Earth to the Moon", www.imdb.com. 1998.

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• That was a real fireball.

  John Glenn

  Real, Moon, Walking

  Transcript of Communication With the Mission Control Center, NASA, 1962, www.nasa.gov. January 06, 2010.

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• Zero G and I feel fine.

  John Glenn

  Zero, Moon, Fine

  John Glenn, Nick Taylor (1999). “John Glenn: A Memoir”, p.306, Bantam

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• On the periscope . . . . What a beautiful view. Cloud cover over Florida - three to four tenths near the eastern coast. Obscured up to Hatteras . . . I can see [lake] Okeechobee. Identify Andros Island. Identify the reefs.

  Alan Shepard

  Beautiful, Moon, Lakes

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• You're on your way, Jose!

  Deke Slayton

  Moon, Way, Aviation

  Jay Barbree, Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton (2011). “Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings”, p.130, Open Road Media

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• Why don't you fix your little problem and light this candle?

  Alan Shepard

  Moon, Light, Littles

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• In order for us to use the very best judgment possible in spending the taxpayer's money intelligently, we just have to do a certain amount of this research and development work ourselves. We just have to keep our own hands dirty to command the professional respect of the contractor personnel engaged with actual design, shop and testing work.

  Wernher von Braun

  Dirty, Moon, Hands

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• Mankind is destined to step beyond his earthly bonds just as his ancestors once crawled out of the seas. Colonizing new worlds . . . the race will survive.

  Charles Sheldon

  Moon, Sea, Race

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• Dear Iranian nation, your children have placed the first indigenous satellite into orbit.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Children, Moon, Orbit

  The Rachel Maddow Show, www.msnbc.com. March 02, 2009.

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