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The sad and solemn night
Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires;
The glorious host of light
Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires;
All through her silent watches, gliding slow,
Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go.

— William Cullen Bryant

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Space

More quotes by William Cullen Bryant

The little wind-flower, whose just opened eye
Is blue as the spring heaven it gazes at.

Poems (1832)

Weep not that the world changes—did it keep
A stable, changeless state, 'twere cause indeed to weep.

Poems (1832)

And suns grow meek, and the meek suns grow brief,
And the year smiles as it draws near its death.

October. A Sonnet (1866)

And the blue gentian flower, that, in the breeze,
Nods lonely, of her beauteous race the last.

Poems (1832)

Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.

Poems (1832)

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