To see the earth as we now see it, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night—brothers who see now they are truly brothers.

"Bubble of Blue Air," Riders on the Earth; Essays and Recollections by Archibald MacLeish, epigraph, p. xiv (1978). This was written by MacLeish for The New York Times "after the Apollo mission of 1968 returned from space with a photograph of what earth looked like as seen from beyond the moon: the photograph which gave mankind its first understanding of its actual situation; riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night—brothers who see now they are truly brothers (p. ix). The article has slightly different wording and reads as follows: "To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers". The New York Times (December 25, 1968), p. 1.