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God be thanked for the Milky Way that runs across the sky,
That's the path that my feet would tread whenever I have to die.
Some folks call it a Silver Sword, and some a Pearly Crown,
But the only thing I think it is, is Main Street, Heaventown.

— Joyce Kilmer Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

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Space

More quotes by Joyce Kilmer

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
⁠Of men-at-arms who come to pray.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;
Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.
It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;
It is a linnet's fluting after rain.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

The song within your heart could never rise
Until love bade it spread its wings and soar.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

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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: Joyce Kilmer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.