I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Meaning of the quote

We go to the moon because that's just how humans are. We like to take on difficult challenges and do things that seem impossible, just like how salmon swim upstream even though it's hard. It's part of our nature, something deep inside us that makes us want to explore and push the limits of what we can do.

More quotes from Neil Armstrong

The Eagle has landed.

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It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

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I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.

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If that’s there, I believe that technology will probably step up to their part of it.

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Research is creating new knowledge.

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I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.

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Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.

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Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.

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I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

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The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.

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It’s a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It’s an interesting place to be. I recommend it.

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This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

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In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

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Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.

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Geologists have a saying – rocks remember.

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Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

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As a boy, because I was born and raised in Ohio, about 60 miles north of Dayton, the legends of the Wrights have been in my memories as long as I can remember.

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Pilots take no special joy in walking. Pilots like flying.

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Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.

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Gliders, sail planes, they’re wonderful flying machines. It’s the closest you can come to being a bird.

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I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

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I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

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The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.

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We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

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Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.

Neil Armstrong

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I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Neil Armstrong

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I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

Neil Armstrong

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