quotations about the moon
I know not that there is anything in nature more soothing to the mind than the contemplations of the moon, sailing, like some planetary bark, amidst a sea of bright azure.
W. G. SIMMS
attributed, Day's Collacon
If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight;
For the gay beams of lightsome day
Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.
WALTER SCOTT
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
The moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places.
MARY SHELLEY
Frankenstein
There's no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon.
TOM ROBBINS
Still Life with Woodpecker
The myriads of mankind depart--they die,
They leave no vestige that they once have been,
But thou remain'st forever in the sky,
Renewing thy existence--night's fair queen!
DUGALD MOORE
"To the Moon"
Moon!
Moon!
I am prone before you.
Pity me,
And drench me in loneliness.
AMY LOWELL
"On a Certain Critic"
I am a cemetery by the moon unblessed.
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
Paris Spleen
I loved thee, gentle moon! thou wert to me
Brother and sister and companion--all
My kin, while standing on the silent lea
I watch'd thy glory in the starry hall;
And thy white beams like shower of diamonds fall
Upon the azure desert; lovely light,
Sure thou wert fashion'd, when Sin's fatal pall
Was flung o'er earth, to welcome her flight
The lone and weary soul that journeys through the night.
DUGALD MOORE
"To the Moon"
The moon had been observing the earth close-up longer than anyone. It must have witnessed all of the phenomena occurring--and all of the acts carried out--on this earth. But the moon remained silent; it told no stories. All it did was embrace the heavy past with cool, measured detachment. On the moon there was neither air nor wind. Its vacuum was perfect for preserving memories unscathed. No one could unlock the heart of the moon.
HARUKI MURAKAMI
1Q84
The devil's in the moon for mischief; they
Who call'd her chaste, methinks, began too soon
Their nomenclature; there is not a day,
The longest, not the twenty-first of June,
Sees half the business in a wicked way,
On which three single hours of moonshine smile--
And then she looks so modest all the while!
LORD BYRON
Don Juan
The moon hangs alien, heavy, like a lock on a door; the door is tightly shut.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
"The North", The Dragon: Fifteen Stories
I made it to the moon and nothing changed.
WALTER BARGEN
"Mare Tranquillitatis"
Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
The American Notebooks
The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right,
White as a knuckle and terribly upset.
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet
With the O-gape of complete despair.
SYLVIA PLATH
"The Moon and the Yew Tree", Ariel
Thy peerless glory, gentle orb! I sing,
Enamoured of thy beam's enchanting light,
Which, like a silver veil, adorns the dark
And melancholy brow of ebon night,
And gives her sable hue coquettish charm.
Celestial wand'rer! Mild magnificence!
Earth's fair twin sister swathed with infant bands!
Shed thy dumb eloquence upon my soul,
And kindle its dim torch with light of song!
C. B. LANGSTON
"To the Moon"
Contact light.
BUZZ ALDRIN
the actual first words spoken from the surface of the Moon; over six hours later, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and uttered the immortal line "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", July 20, 1969
Thou Moon! Sun of the Night,
Sister mystic of the Day;
Look down, pause in thy flight!
Calm me with thy aural ray,
Enchanting souls to silver sleep.
Look down from out thy airy keep,
My fevered senses hypnotize;
Shut out the World, whereto Mind flies--
Ambitious Mind, with travail sore;
Its fibre rest, its calm restore.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
"An Invocation", Cloudrifts at Twilight
The moon like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
"Night"
That's one small step for [a] man; one giant leap for mankind.
NEIL ARMSTRONG
remark upon becoming the first man to step onto the surface of the moon, July 20, 1969
We ran as if to meet the moon
That slowly dawned behind the trees,
The barren boughs without the leaves,
Without the birds, without the breeze.
ROBERT FROST
"Going for Water"