From this distant vantage point the Earth might not seem of any particular interest
But for us it's different
consider again that dot
That's here. That's home. That's us
on it
Everyone you love everyone
You know everyone
You ever heard of every human being who ever was lived out their lives?
The aggregate our joy and suffering
thousands of confident religions ideologies and economic doctrines every
Hunter and forager every hero and coward every creator and destroyer of Civilization every
king and peasant every young couple in love every mother and father
Hopeful child inventor
And explorer every teacher of morals every corrupt politician
Every superstar every supreme leader every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived
There on the mote of dust suspended
in a sunbeam
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast Cosmic arena
think of the Rivers of blood
spilled by all those generals and emperors, so
that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of
a fraction of a dot
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner
How frequent their misunderstandings?
How eager they are to kill one another how fervent their hatreds?
our posturings our
Imagined self-importance the Delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are
challenged by this point of pale light
our planet
Is a lonely speck in the great enveloping Cosmic dark?
in our obscurity
In all this vastness there
Is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves?
The Earth the only World known so far to harbor life
There is nowhere else at least in the near future to which our species could migrate
visit
Yes
settled
Not yet
Like it or not for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand?
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience
There is perhaps. No better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world
to me
It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish
the Pale Blue Dot the
Only home, we've ever known
