Freeman’s Perspective has an article here with these interesting quotes from men who have walked on the moon:
It was to me like I was just sitting on a rocking chair on a Friday evening, looking back home, sitting on God’s front porch, looking back at the Earth; looking back home. It was really that simple, but it was an overpowering experience.
– Gene Cernan, Apollo 17
On the return trip home, gazing through 240,000 miles of space toward the stars and the planet from which I had come, I suddenly experienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious… My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity… We went to the moon as technicians, we returned as humanitarians.
– Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14
Since that time I have not complained about the weather one single time. I’m glad there is weather. I have not complained about traffic; I’m glad there are people around. One of the things I did when I got home; I went down to shopping centers, and I’d just go there, get an ice cream cone or something, and just watch the people go by. And think “Boy we’re lucky to be here. Why do people complain about the Earth? We are living in the Garden of Eden.”
– Alan Bean, Apollo 12
As Neil and I first stood on the surface of the moon looking back at Earth—a bright blue marble suspended in the blackness of space—the experience moved us in ways that we could not have anticipated.
– Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11
He finishes by saying:
“The stars are not beyond our grasp; it’s that our lives have been restrained, and our expectations that have been neutered.”
I would only add that it is individual’s freedom that has been restrained. If society allows its people to be truly free, there is no end to the goodness they will create. The society will continue to blossom forever.