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He that strives to touch a star,
Oft stumbles at a straw.

— Edmund Spenser

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Space

More quotes by Edmund Spenser

For of the soule the bodie forme doth take;
For the soule is forme, and doth the bodie make.

Fowre Hymnes (1596)

The gentle minde by gentle deeds is knowne.
For a man by nothing is so well bewrayd,
As by his manners.

The Faerie Queene (1589)

For all that faire is, is by nature good;
That is a signe to know the gentle blood.

Fowre Hymnes (1596)

I learned have, not to despise,
What ever thing seemes small in common eyes.

Complaints (1591)

Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

The Faerie Queene (1589)

All Edmund Spenser quotes →

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Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive.

Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)

The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky.

Arthur Koestler The Act of Creation (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edmund Spenser (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.