Top 43 Quotes & Sayings by Jim Lovell

People say, 'Did you violate Heaven?' Well, God is down here, too. If you believe in God, you believe in God here as well as 240,000 miles away.

The fascination to go into space has existed for hundreds of years. But as we do things and they're successful, people get bored.

I didn't go into the NASA program to pick up rocks or to go the moon or anything else. I went in there because I was a military officer, and that was the next notch in my profession.

After six successful Apollo flights, including two lunar landings, people were getting bored.

Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability might have your job.

From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It's not a miracle; we just decided to go.

I take the NASA physical every year.

We do not realize what we have on Earth until we leave it.

I was born a year after Lindbergh made his historic trip across the Atlantic.

We didn't slow down, unlike the others, when we got to the moon because we needed its gravity to get back, so we hold the altitude record. I never even thought about it. Records are only made to be broken.

For some time, I thought Apollo 13 was a failure. I was disappointed I didn't get to land on the moon. But actually, it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

In space-flight terms, six landings on the moon back in the Sixties and Seventies doesn't mean much.

The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything you've ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy.

The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand.

Boys like either dinosaurs or airplanes. I was very much an airplane boy.

I would suspect strongly that over a period of time, if we put our mind to going to Mars, it will be a consortium of several countries.

Mars is a long ways away. The moon is only 240,000 miles, but Mars is in the millions. It's too risky without spending more time going to the moon.

I was a naval officer and aviator. I tested airplanes and got selected to be an astronaut later on.

I could put my thumb up to a window and completely hide the Earth. I thought, 'Everything I've ever known is behind my thumb.'

There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.

If you're going to go into space, you have to have an objective, a mission. Where do you want to go? Earth orbit? The moon? Mars? What's the technology to get there? You develop the technology for the mission.

Houston, we've had a problem.

I was only a hero by default. The flights were few and far between. There weren't that many astronauts. The moon flights were so interesting and exciting.

We got to the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, at the end of a poor year for this country. We had Vietnam. We had civil unrest. We had the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. But we went around the moon and saw the far side for the first time. A script writer couldn't have done a better job of raising people's hope.

My view is that we should go back to the moon, build up the infrastructure to make flights there commonplace - be comfortable with it - then use that infrastructure to expand and go to Mars.

The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.

It looks to me, looking out the hatch, that we are venting something. We are venting something out into the - into space.

Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.

The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth.

Err Houston, we've had a problem. [pause] We've had a main B bus undervolt.

The lunar flights give you a correct perception of our existence. You look back at Earth from the moon, and you can put your thumb up to the window and hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything youve ever known is behind your thumb, and that blue-and-white ball is orbiting a rather normal star, tucked away on the outer edge of a galaxy.

You need to be a person who makes things happen.

When I circled the moon and looked back at Earth, my outlook on life and my viewpoint of Earth changed... Earth is a spaceship, just like Apollo - and just like Apollo, the crew must learn to live and work together. We must learn to manage the resources of this world with new imagination.

The Moon is essentially gray - no color - looks like plaster of paris - soft of gray sand.

We learned a lot about the Moon, but what we really learned was about the Earth. The fact that just from the distance of the Moon you can put your thumb up and you can hide the Earth behind your thumb. Everything that you've ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself-all behind your thumb. And how insignificant we really all are, but then how fortunate we are to have this body and to be able to enjoy loving here amongst the beauty of the Earth itself.

Well, Frank, my thoughts are very similar. The vast loneliness up here at the moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize what you have back there on earth. The earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space.

For most of the time carrier aviation is more challenging than flying in a spacecraft

I never thought I didn't have a card to play.

There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened. To be successful, you need to be a person who makes things happen.

I was born a year after Lindbergh made his historic trip across the Atlantic. Boys like either dinosaurs or airplanes. I was very much an airplane boy.

The real friends of the space voyager are the stars. Their friendly, familiar patterns are constant companions, unchanging, out there.

I didnt go into the NASA program to pick up rocks or to go the moon or anything else. I went in there because I was a military officer, and that was the next notch in my profession.

Houston, we've had a problem here.