Quotes from Buzz Aldrin

I didn't start skiing until I was 50. My wife Lois taught me how to ski. I'm proficiently conservative.

There's a need for accepting responsibility - for a person's life and making choices that are not just ones for immediate short-term comfort. You need to make an investment, and the investment is in health and education.

I've been to the Titanic in a yellow submarine and the North Pole in a Russian nuclear ice breaker.

I came to dedicate my life to opening space to the average person and crafting designs for new spaceships that could take us far from home. But since Apollo ended, such travels were only in our collective memory.

Somebody would think I was trying to get favored treatment because my ancestors had the name Moon. And that's a joke.

I really hate to be put in the position of trying to justify something, a decision that was made. I'm a military guy: when a decision is made, I go along with it, whatever the manufactured controversy and criticism.

I shot down two airplanes in Korea, so I wasn't a slouch.

NASA's been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve, and it's sad that we are turning the program in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation it provides to young people.

The pilgrims on the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. To my knowledge, they didn't wait around for a return trip to Europe. You settle some place with a purpose. If you don't want to do that, stay home. You avoid an awful lot of risks by not venturing outward.

Trips to Mars, the Moon, even orbit, will require that we provide astrotourists with as many comforts from home as possible, including paying each other.

As we reflect back upon the tragic loss of Challenger and her brave crew of heroes who were aboard that fateful day, I am reminded that they truly represented the best of us, as they climbed aloft on a plume of propellant gasses, reaching for the stars, to inspire us who were Earthbound.

It's real easy to manufacture what you think the people want to hear. But that's not very honest.

Astronauts working for the government will always need to be either pilots or mission specialists. Those who want to be pilots should have military experience - ideally, a test pilot background.

Weve got to go [back to the moon]. But we dont want to stay too long. ... The ultimate goal is Mars.

Because of his military service, Dad was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

You are not going to change the minds of people who are looking for attention.

The universe is the way it is. It's not going to be changed by supplications.

Exploration is wired into our brains. If we can see the horizon, we want to know what's beyond.

Mars has been flown by, orbited, smacked into, radar examined, and rocketed onto, as well as bounced upon, rolled over, shoveled, drilled into, baked, and even laser blasted. Still to come: Mars being stepped on.

Going to Mars would evolve humankind into a two-planet species.

Contact light.

Mars is there, waiting to be reached.

Unfortunately, pioneers will always pave the way with sacrifices.

It might have been a small step for Neil, but it was a big step for me.