Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Frank Borman, fully Frank Frederick Borman, II

NASA Astronaut and Engineer, remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon

"Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit."

"A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill."

"Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit, and to pause, to falter, to turn our back on the quest for knowledge, is to perish."

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell."

"It's a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work. [Regarding the lunar surface]"

"Now approaching lunar sunrise. And for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo eight has a message that we would like to send to you. 'In the Beginning god created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the Deep. . . . And God saw that it was Good. . . . ' And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck… and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

"The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me -- a small disk, 240,000 miles away... Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence, don't show from that distance."

"It was a delicate maneuver, putting a spacecraft into orbit around the Moon, but one that was critical to the success of a human landing there. The problem is that if you don't put on the brakes at the right moment for the right length of time, you'll fly away from Earth for eternity."

"When you’re finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you’re going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can’t we learn to live together like decent people?"