Moon Quotes

"The Moon is the first milestone on the road to the stars."

- Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer

"Ten years ago the Moon was an inspiration to poets and an opportunity for lovers. Ten years from now it will be just another airport."

- Emmanuel G. Mesthene, Writer

"If somebody had said before the flight, "Are you going to get carried away looking at the earth from the moon?" I would have say, "No, no way." But yet when I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, I cried."

- Alan Shepard, Astronaut

"Well, Frank, my thoughts are very similar. The vast loneliness up here at the moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize what you have back there on earth. The earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space."

- Jim Lovell, live Apollo 8

"As you pass from sunlight into darkness and back again every hour and a half, you become startlingly aware how artificial are thousands of boundaries we've created to separate and define. And for the first time in your life you feel in your gut the precious unity of the Earth and all the living things it supports."

- Russell Schweikart, Apollo 9

"That's one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind."

- Neil A. Armstrong, Commander of Apollo 11

"In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited."

- Neil A. Armstrong, Commander of Apollo 11

"It's different, but it's very pretty out here. I suppose they are going to make a big deal of all this."

- Neil A. Armstrong, Commander of Apollo 11

"This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more still than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown."

- Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11

"I don't believe any pair of people had been more removed physically from the rest of the world than we were."

- Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11

"We are gliding across the world in total silence, with absolute smoothness; a motion of stately grace which makes me feel godlike as I stand erect in my sideways chariot, cruising the night sky."

- Michael Collins, Apollo 11

"I think a future flight should include a poet, a priest and a philosopher . . . we might get a much better idea of what we saw."

- Michael Collins, Apollo 11

"When the eagle landed on the moon, I was speechless overwhelmed, like most of the world. Couldn't say a word. I think all I said was, "Wow! Jeez!" Not exactly immortal. Well, I was nothing if not human."

- Walter Cronkite, CBS News Anchor

"Frequently on the lunar surface I said to myself, This is the Moon, that is the Earth. I'm really here, I'm really here!"

- Alan Bean, Apollo 12

"When I look at the moon I do not see a hostile, empty world. I see the radiant body where man has taken his first steps into a frontier that will never end."

- David Scott, Commander Apollo 15

"As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature, Man must explore . . . and this is exploration at its greatest."

- David Scott, Commander Apollo 15

"As we got further and further away, it [the Earth] diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man."

- James Irwin, Apollo 15

"Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. . . . Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth."

- President Richard M. Nixon

"Here Men From Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon The Moon July 1969 A.D. We Came In Peace For All Mankind."

- Plaque left on the Moon by Apollo 11