96 Space Quotes & Inspirational Quotes About The Universe

A long time ago, mankind would look up at the stars and the moon and dream of being able to make it there; imagining that heaven must be beyond the veil of Earth’s atmosphere and finding ways to create the concept of space travel.

And when man finally did make it into space, it didn’t disappoint — as the many space quotes about the beauty of seeing the planet from orbit indicate!

When man first traveled to the moon in 1969, it may have been one giant leap, but it was only a small part of our long fascination with the beauty of outer space and the amazing vastness of everything waiting for us in the cosmos.

What we know about space is still so little, and this celestial concept has served as inspiration for both nightmares and dreams — in both fiction and reality.

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To this day, the stars, the moon, other planets, and all the mysteries of space still give hope and excitement in everything from amazing cosmic interactions — like asteroids and eclipses — and even how a planet’s alignment might impact your daily horoscope.

Here are 96 of the best space quotes that will inspire you to never stop looking up at the stars.

As these motivational quotes about space prove, the stars are a great source of beauty, imagination, and inspiration, and will continue to be as humans extend further and further into our solar system.

Space Quotes From Astronauts

1. ”When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the moon, I cried.” — Alan Shepard

2. “What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire — the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.” — Ellen Ochoa

3. “And I suddenly realized the molecules of my body, and the molecules of the spacecraft, the molecules in the body of my partners, were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. And that was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connectedness. It wasn’t ‘them and us,’ it was, 'that’s me, that’s all of it, it’s one thing.' And it was accompanied by ecstasy, a sense of … epiphany.” — Edgar Mitchell

4. “At this point, I thought 'We made it,' by which I meant 'We survived.' I also was acutely aware that my childhood dream of flying into space had just come true.” — Ron Garan

5. “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.” — Neil Armstrong

6. “I find it curious that I never heard any astronaut say that he wanted to go to the moon so he would be able to look back and see the Earth. We all wanted to see what the moon looked like close up. Yet, for most of us, the most memorable sight was not of the moon, but of our beautiful blue and white home, moving majestically around the sun, all alone and infinite black space.” — Alan Bean

7. “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” — Neil Armstrong

8. “The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space.” — Alexei Leonov

9. “Weightlessness was wonderful, and I was surprised at how natural it felt.” — Ron Garan

10. “The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally, it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble 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." — James Irwin

11. “The stars don't look bigger, but they do look brighter." — Sally Ride

12. “Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth... home." — Edgar Mitchell

13. “In the van, we can see the rocket in the distance, lit up and shining, an obelisk. In reality, of course, it’s a 4.5-megaton bomb loaded with explosive fuel, which is why everyone else is driving away from it.” — Chris Hadfield

14. “We are limited only by our imagination and our will to act.” — Ron Garan

15. "It's easy to sleep floating around — it's very comfortable. But you have to be careful that you don't float into somebody or something!" — James Irwin

16. “I know the sky is not the limit because there are footprints on the moon — and I made some of them!” — Buzz Aldrin

17. “I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul. We’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.” — Neil Armstrong

18. "Earth is a small town with many neighborhoods in a very big universe." — Ron Garan

19. "Space is for everybody. It's not just for a few people in science or math, or for a select group of astronauts. That's our new frontier out there, and it's everybody's business to know about space." — Christa McAuliffe

20. "I must admit, maybe I am a piece of history after all." — Alan Shepard

21. "Every single astronaut who has come back from space comes back determined to do more to protect it." — Richard Branson

22. “I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible; that noisy argument suddenly silenced.” — Michael Collins

23. “My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.” — Edgar Mitchell

24. “You’ll never know how good you are until you try. Dream the impossible and then go out and make it happen. I walked on the moon. What can’t you do?” — Gene Cernan

25. "Any astronaut can tell you you've got to do everything you can to learn about your life support system and then do everything you can to take care of it." — Sylvia Earle

26. "I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets." — John Glenn

27. "If offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat. Just get on." — Christa McAuliffe

28. "I thought the attractions of being an astronaut were actually, not so much the Moon, but flying in a completely new medium." — Neil Armstrong

29. “Curiosity is the essence of our existence.” — Gene Cernan

30. "Of course risk is part of spaceflight. We accept some of that to achieve greater goals in exploration and find out more about ourselves and the universe." — Lisa Nowak

31. “I suppose the one quality in an astronaut more powerful than any other is curiosity. They have to get someplace nobody’s ever been.” — John Glenn

32. “Gravity hurts.” — Viktor Alexandrov

33. “The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic.” — Alexi Leonov

34. “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty.” — Edgar Mitchell

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Inspirational Space Quotes

35. “Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars." — Serbian proverb

36. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan

“37. There can be no center in infinity.” — Lucretius, On the Nature of the Universe

38. “The heart looks into space to be away from Earth.” — Richard Jefferies

39. “At night, when the sky is full of stars and the sea is still, you get the wonderful sensation that you are floating in space.” — Natalie Wood

40. “That’s what it feels like when you touch me. Like millions of tiny universes being born and then dying in the space between your fingers and my skin.” — Iain Thomas

41. “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.” — Stephen Hawking

42. “For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimension.” — Zhuangzi

43. “Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.” — Interstellar

44. “You never enjoy the world aright, ‘til the sea itself floweth in your veins, ‘til you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars.” — Thomas Traherne

45. “We are made of star stuff.” — Carl Sagan

46. “All of time and space. Everywhere and anywhere. Every star that ever was. Where do you want to start?” — Doctor Who

47. “The probability of success is difficult to estimate; but if we never search, the chance of success is zero.” — Giuseppe Cocconi

48. “Where we choose to seed ourselves on the spectrum of what’s possible is what will ultimately define the size of our lives.” — Mary-Jo Dionne

49. “Not just beautiful, though — the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they’re watching me.” — Haruki Murakami

50. “In all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.” — Carl Sagan

51. "Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious." — Stephen Hawking

52. “Never limit yourself because of others’ limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.” — Mae Jemison

53. “Cosmology does, I think, affect the way that we perceive humanity’s role in nature. One thing we’ve learnt from astronomy is that the future lying ahead is more prolonged than the past. Even our sun is less than halfway through its life.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

54. “I promise you that the same stuff galaxies are made of, you are. The same energy that swings planets around stars makes electrons dance in your heart.” — Kamal Ravikant, Live Your Truth

55. “Everybody has a little bit of the sun and moon in them.” — Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

56. “The stars up there at night are closer than you think.” — Doug Dillon

57. “Because there is such a law as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.” — Stephen Hawking

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Quotes About The Universe & Mankind

58. "There is perhaps no better a demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.” — Carl Sagan

59. “I heard the universe as an oratorio sung by a master choir of stars, accompanied by the orchestra of the planets and the percussion of satellites and moons.” — R.J. Anderson, Ultraviolet

60. “We are finite, in that we are a product and source of the infinite.” — Ilyas Kassam

61. “Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.” — Albert Einstein

62. “One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist… Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.” — Stephen Hawking

63. "You cannot look up at the night sky on the planet Earth and not wonder what it’s like to be up there amongst the stars. And I always look up at the moon and see it as the single most romantic place within the cosmos.” — Tom Hanks

64. “The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” — Edwin Hubble

65. “Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.” — Maria Mitchell

66. “Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” — Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

67. “Equipped with his five senses, man explored the universe around him and calls the adventure 'science.'” — Edwin Hubble

68. “Mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit. Let us continue the journey.” — George W. Bush

69. “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” — Carl Sagan

70. “When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.” — Kalpana Chawla

71. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And I’m not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein

72. “I saw the world from the stars’ point of view, and it looked unbearably lonely.” — Shaun David Hutchinson, We Are the Ants

73. “Of course there are worlds. Millions of them! Every star you see has world, and most of those you don’t see.” — Isaac Asimov, Pebble in the Sky

74. “I look up at the night sky, and I know that, yes, we are part of the universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up — many people feel small because they’re small and the universe is big, but I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Quotes About Space Travel & Exploration

75. “The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

76. “Astronomers, like burglars and jazz musicians, operate best at night.” — Miles Kington

77. “The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time.” — John F. Kennedy

78. “Man must rise above the Earth — to the top of the atmosphere and beyond — for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.” — Socrates

79. "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." — Stephen Hawking

80. “The cosmos is within us. … We are a way for the universe to know itself.” — Carl Sagan

81. “To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.” — Stephen Hawking

82. “Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.” — Carl Sagan

83. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity — but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

84. “Even today the most jaded city dweller can be unexpectedly moved upon encountering a clear night sky studded with thousands of twinkling stars. When it happens to me after all these years, it still takes my breath away.” — Carl Sagan

85. "Astronauts are like these mythic legends, but really, they are just regular people, people who wear chinos." — Mary Roach

86. “Space is an inspirational concept that allows you to dream big.” — Peter Diamandis

87. “Discover the force of the skies, O men: once recognized, it can be put to use.” — Johannes Keplar

88. “All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.” — Carl Sagan

89. “The time will come when man will know what’s going on in the other planets and perhaps be able to visit them.” — Henry Ford

90. “Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another.” — Plato

91. “For me, it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — Carl Sagan

92. “It’s funny. When we were alive, we spent much of our time staring up at the cosmos and wondering what was out there. We were obsessed with the moon and whether we could one day visit it. The day we finally walked on it was celebrated worldwide as perhaps man’s greatest achievement. But it was while we were there, gathering rocks from the moon’s desolate landscape, that we looked up and caught a glimpse of just how incredible our own planet was. Its singular, astonishing beauty.” — Jon Stewart, Earth: A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race

93. "I think we are at the dawn of a new era in commercial space exploration." — Elon Musk

94. “Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity—distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless.” — Douglas Adams, A Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

95. “Stars, everywhere. So many stairs that I could not for the life of me understand how the sky could contain them all yet be so black.” — Peter Watts, Blindsight

96. “The universe is not a stagnant place where technology stands still and only the few govern its destiny. Rather, it’s a multi-dimensional dynamic entity that interacts with all things, even the very smallest. And what part we each play in it and the effect we have on it is a matter of our own choice.” R.G. Risch

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Lauren Margolis is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture, and relationship topics.