Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
.. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the 'Momentary' masters of a 'Fraction' of a 'Dot'
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance , the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light.
Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe. Every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at all on astronomy.
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent.
To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.
or simply:
