quote · Legacy record
For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.
For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.
Approximate author period: c. 1965 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Carl Sagan
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1965 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1934 to 1996; Wikidata Q410, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q410 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 76295; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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