From this distant vantage point
the Earth might not seem of 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 of our joy and suffering
The aggregate of our joy and suffering
The aggregate of our joy and suffering
The aggregate of 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 a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena
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 is 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. Settle, 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
