History has spurts and then is steady, and then maybe even backing up — Alan Bean

"The movement of human beings off the planet out into the Universe; first the Moon, and then Mars, and then who knows where, is just beginning and there is nothing that can stop it. None of us know the timetable, none of us know whether its going to happen rapidly or its going to happen very slowly. Eventually, as the centuries unfold, human beings will populate all these places and maybe a thousand years from now, or maybe its two thousand or five thousand, there will be more human beings living off the Earth than live on it. Its just going to happen and we dont need to be anxious about it. We dont need to worry that next year they decide to cut the space station. If they cut the space station next year, I hope they dont, but if they did, its not the end of the world. Were going to eventually have a wonderful space station. Eventually there are going to be cities in space. If Chicago had been founded a hundred years later, we wouldnt even know that now. I dont know when it was founded, but if it had been a hundred years later or a hundred years earlier, right now it wouldnt make any difference. It would probably look about the same. People would be just as happy doing the same things. Thats the same way with space exploration. Maybe we dont go to Mars in my lifetime, maybe we dont even go till my grandkids lifetime. Thats okay. Eventually it will happen."

"Long after I’m gone, people will have these paintings with dust and footprints in them. It will be something really special for people to enjoy and remember."

"I think Genesis in the Old Testament has it wrong. I don’t think we were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Just look around. We’re still in it, particularly when you compare the earth with the moon. The moon has no plants, no life, no water, no animals, no nothing."

"Everyone is trying to reach for their own stars, and all of those stars aren’t light-years away. They are as close as our job, our family, our children, our next-door neighbors and our good friends."

"Apollo is the greatest adventure of all humankind, and it needs to be recorded in every way possible for future generations in books, in movies and on television. … I’m an artist. That’s the way I care about things. Maybe 200 years from now, someone will say, "I’m glad he did that."