“The real problem,” Eberly burst out, “is that these regulations were — Ben Bova

"Consider the history of the earth. Let the height of the Empire State Building represent the planet’s five billion years of existence. Mans one-million-year tenure on earth can then be represented by a one-foot ruler, standing at the very top of the building. A dime placed at the top of the ruler represents the entire span of mans civilization. And, at the very top of the whole wobbly conglomerate, is glued a postage stamp —this represents the length of time since man has developed modern science."

"If astronomy has taught man anything it is the painful fact that we are not special creatures in any sense of the term. Our star is an average one, and the conditions that led to the formation of our planet and ourselves were probably not very extraordinary."

"My first published novel was written for teenagers, and there were rules laid down by the publisher: no sex, no smoking, no swearing. I blew up entire solar systems, I consigned billions of people to horrible death; they didnt seem to mind that at all. But no hanky-panky."

"Your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to get the other poor sonofabitch to die for his country."

"“Wake up in there!” Fritz hollered. “I’m awake,” said Gaeta. “These days you spend too much time in bed and not enough time sleeping.”"

"I think its perfectly OK to exploit the moon. Largely for two reasons: theres no life there, and it is close enough and rich enough in resources to be economically useful to Earth. In the final analysis, everything we do in space, if it does not help the people of Earth, all the people, its not going to happen."