Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
Gene CernanRead
Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I'm still the last man to have walked on the moon, somewhat disappointing. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done.
Interpretation
Gene Cernan reflects on the human achievements in space exploration and emphasizes the unfulfilled potential that still exists.
In this quote, Gene Cernan, the last astronaut to walk on the moon, expresses a sense of disappointment that despite the monumental achievement of landing on the moon, humanity has not advanced further in space exploration. He suggests that this lack of progress speaks volumes about our unfulfilled aspirations and the barriers that still exist in reaching greater heights in science and exploration.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the future of space exploration.
Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
I'm quite disappointed that I'm still the last man on the moon.
I know the stars are my home. I learned about them, needed them for survival in terms of navigation. I know where I am when I look up at the sky. I know where I am when I look up at the Moon; it's not just some abstract romantic idea, it's something very real to me. See, I've expanded my home.
Prepare for the unknown, unexpected and inconceivable . . . after 50 years of flying I'm still learning every time I fly.
Yes, I am the last man to have walked on the moon, and that's a very dubious and disappointing honor. It's been far too long.
I walked on the Moon. What can't you do?
Human evolution, at first, seems extraordinary. How could the process that gave rise to slugs and oak trees and fish produce a creature that can fly to the moon and invent the Internet and cross the ocean in boats?
This afternoon, I've arranged for this ceremony to be illuminated by solar power.
The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.
The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986. I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.
Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different things in very different ways. Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others artisans. There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a few mystics.
With any hallucinations, if you can do functional brain imagery while they're going on, you will find that the parts of the brain usually involved in seeing or hearing - in perception - have become super active by themselves. And this is an autonomous activity; this does not happen with imagination.
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