Wernher von Braun

We must never forget that the ultimate goal of all our space efforts is to improve life on Earth.

I have always been fascinated by the unknown.

The universe is a vast and beautiful place.

I am a space enthusiast.

We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.

I like to build things.

There's no problem that can't be solved with enough ingenuity and effort.

Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you give it to a surgeon or a murderer, each will use it differently.

We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured.

The working conditions there were absolutely horrible. I saw the Mittelwerk several times, once while these prisoners were blasting new tunnels in there and it was a pretty hellish environment. I'd never been in a mine before, but it was clearly worse than a mine.

During my visits in the Mittelwerk, I never saw a dead man nor did I ever see a beating or a killing.

Not joining [the Nazi Party] would have meant that I would have had to abandon the work of my life.

The guidelines of what we ought to do are furnished in the moral law of God. It is no longer enough that we pray that God may be with us on our side. We must learn again that we may be on God's side.

Our knowledge and use of the laws of nature that enable us to fly to the Moon also enable us to destroy our home planet with the atom bomb. Science itself does not address the question whether we should use the power at our disposal for good or for evil.

Conquering the universe one has to solve two problems: gravity and red tape. We could have mastered gravity.

It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity.

Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing.

In this age of space flight, when we use the modern tools of science to advance into new regions of human activity, the Bible... remains in every way an up-to-date book.

Don't tell me that man doesn't belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go — and he'll do plenty well when he gets there.