40 Best Buzz Aldrin Quotes From The Apollo 11 Astronaut

Edwin made 'Buzz' his official name in the late '80s but was known by that nickname since his childhood.

His sister mispronounced ‘brother’ as ‘buzzer,’ and eventually, his family shortened it to Buzz, and that is the way he is still known. Buzz’s father wanted him to join the navy, but he chose the air force because he suffered from seasickness and was always fascinated by planes.

His father served in World War One as an army aviator and assistant commandant of the Army’s test pilot school. A straight 'A' student, Buzz Aldrin had his path planned long before he got admitted to Severn School, a preparatory for United States Naval Academy, Annapolis.

He told his father that he would like to join the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Buzz Aldrin excelled academically there, too, and got to choose his assignment.

He chose the United States Air Force. Buzz Aldrin later went on to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through the Air Force Institute of Technology. He studied astrodynamics, which he enjoyed, and decided to pursue his doctorate there.

He earned his Sc.D. in astronautics.

If you like these man on the moon famous quotes from Buzz Aldrin, plus the Buzz Aldrin quotes about earth and Apollo 11 quotes, then check out our articles on astronaut quotes and astronomy quotes.

Famous Buzz Aldrin Quotes

Buzz Aldrin joined NASA’s 'Project Gemini'. He then got selected to NASA's astronaut group 3. He was assigned to mission planning, trajectory analysis, and flight plans. His first mission in space was 'Gemini 12'.

After completing this, he got transferred to the Apollo program. Neil Armstrong was the commander, Michael Collins as command module pilot, and Aldrin as Lunar Module Pilot. Here are some inspiring Buzz Aldrin quotes about the moon.

1. "Some people don’t like to admit that they have failed or that they have not yet achieved their goals or lived up to their own expectations. ”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

2. "I know the sky is not the limit, because there are footprints on the Moon—and I made some of them! So, don’t allow anyone to denigrate or inhibit your lofty aspirations.”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

3. “Fear paralyzes in many ways, but especially if it keeps you from responding wisely and intelligently to challenges. The only way to overcome your fears is to face them head-on.”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

4. “Choose your heroes wisely, and be careful who you idolize. Why? Simple: you will become like the people with whom you most often associate.”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

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

- Buzz Aldrin.

6. "Mars has been flown by, orbited, smacked into, radar examined, and rocketed onto..."

- Buzz Aldrin.

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

- Buzz Aldrin.

8. "Mars is there, waiting to be reached."

- Buzz Aldrin.

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

- Buzz Aldrin.

10. "Mars has been...bounced upon, rolled over, shovelled, drilled into, baked, and even laser blasted. Still to come: Mars being stepped on."

- Buzz Aldrin.

10. "I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats."

- Buzz Aldrin.

11. "Bravery comes along as a gradual accumulation of discipline."

- Buzz Aldrin.

Inspirational Buzz Aldrin Quotes

Apollo 11 took the journey to the Moon on 16 July, 1969. And it landed on the Moon on 20 July, 1969, with Neil Armstrong and him, who set foot on the Moon as the first and second man to do so.

As they took a walk on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin said "Beautiful View,” to which Armstrong replied, "isn’t that something? Magnificent out here."

To which he said, "Magnificent Desolation". After successfully finishing his NASA duties, Buzz Aldrin returned to the Air Force.

Neil Armstrong said the famous words when he kept his foot on the Moon for the first time,  "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Below are some of the famous quotes by Buzz Aldrin.

12. "Globalisation means many other countries are asserting themselves and trying to take over leadership. Please don't ask Americans to let others assume the leadership of human exploration. We can do wonderful science on the Moon, and wonderful commercial things. Then we can pack up and move on to Mars."

- Buzz Aldrin.

13. “As someone who flew two space capsules and twice landed in the ocean, I can attest from personal experience how much logistics work is needed to get you home."

- Buzz Aldrin.

14. ‘’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."

- Buzz Aldrin.

15. “Everyone should take their hats off to Neil Armstrong. He is a humble guy who doesn't wave his own flag."

- Buzz Aldrin.

16. "One truth I have discovered for sure: When you believe that all things are possible and you are willing to work hard to accomplish your goals, you can achieve the next 'impossible' dream. No dream is too high!"

- Buzz Aldrin.

17. "There's a tremendously satisfying freedom associated with weightlessness. It's challenging in the absence of traction or leverage, and it requires thoughtful readjustment.

I found the experience of weightlessness to be one of the most fun and enjoyable, challenging and rewarding, experiences of spaceflight. Returning to Earth brings with it a great sense of heaviness, and a need for careful movement. In some ways it's not too different from returning from a rocking ocean ship."

- Buzz Aldrin.

18. "Everyone who's been in space would, I'm sure, welcome the opportunity for a return to the exhilarating experiences there. For me, a flight in a shuttle, though most satisfying, would be anticlimactic after my flight to the moon."

- Buzz Aldrin.

19. "Taking advantage of what we put together in that Saturn 5 rocket. If we had chosen to put wings on that Saturn, we might have been on the way. But then the Russians might have got to the moon first."

- Buzz Aldrin.

20. "The achievements of Apollo were so bold and our subsequent efforts so timid that the energy of those years seems like a youthful dream."

- Buzz Aldrin.

21. "I was an outsider. I was the egghead from academia who got in because the rules had changed. While I looked for validation from my fellow contemporaries, I instead found jealousy and envy. I did not find team spirit. This led to dissatisfaction, an unease."

- Buzz Aldrin.

22. "I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime."

- Buzz Aldrin.

23. “It certainly didn’t make me feel lonely, except to realize that we were as far away as people had ever been.

Once we were on the surface of the Moon we could look back and see the Earth, a little blue dot in the sky. We are a very small part of the solar system and the whole universe.

The sky was black as could be, and the horizon was so well defined as it curved many miles away from us into space.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

24. “Failure is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are alive and growing.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

25. "Where are the billions and billions and billions of people, on what I’m looking at? We’re the only three that are not back there.’ And we didn’t get to celebrate. Because we were out of town.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

Best Buzz Aldrin Quotes

Buzz Aldrin became the commandant of USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Airforce Base, California. Around this time, he suffered from depression and got hospitalized for four weeks. Buzz Aldrin believed he inherited depression from his mother’s side of the family.

When the air force decided to stop all astronaut training from the Edwards Airforce base, Aldrin chose to retire after twenty-one years of service. During this period, Buzz Aldrin struggled with depression and alcoholism the most.

Finally, in 1978, Aldrin gave up drinking for good. He advocated space exploration all his life. Here are some famous Buzz Aldrin quotes.

26. “Your dream can take you might higher and much farther than anyone ever thought possible! I know mine did.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

27. “To me, that is one of the most important principles of life: Never leave your friends behind.”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

28. “Keep in mind that progress is not always linear. It takes constant course correcting and often a lot of zigzagging. Unfortunate things happen, accidents occur, and setbacks are usually painful, but that does not mean we quit.”

― 'No Dream Is Too High'.

29. "The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

30. "Humanity is destined to explore, settle, and expand outward into the universe.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

31. "The best way to study Mars is with two hands, eyes and ears of a geologist, first at a moon orbiting Mars…and then on the surface."

- Buzz Aldrin.

32. "This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more still than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown."

- Buzz Aldrin.

33. "We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean. Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way."

- Buzz Aldrin.

34. "We’ll get to the details of what’s around here, but it looks like a collection of just about every variety of shape - angularity, granularity, about every variety of rock.

The colors - well, there doesn’t appear to be too much of a general color at all; however, it looks as though some of the rocks and boulders [are] going to have some interesting colors to them. Over."

- Buzz Aldrin.

35. "If we can conquer space, we can conquer childhood hunger."

- Buzz Aldrin.

36. “Knowledge of the past and an optimistic view of the present give you great opportunities.”

- Buzz Aldrin.

37. “To send humans back to the moon would not be advancing.

It would be more than 50 years after the first moon landing when we got there, and we'd probably be welcomed by the Chinese. But we should return to the moon without astronauts and build, with robots, an international lunar base, so that we know how to build a base on Mars robotically."

- Buzz Aldrin.

38. "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."

- Buzz Aldrin.

39. “I have no intention of selling any more of the historical Apollo 11 items in my possession for the remainder of my life. I intend to pass a portion of these items on to my children and to loan the most important items for permanent display in suitable museums around the country."

- Buzz Aldrin.

40. “From the distance of the Moon, Earth was four times the size of a full moon seen from Earth. It was a brilliant jewel in the black velvet sky. Yet it was still at a great distance, considering the challenges of the voyage home."

- Buzz Aldrin.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Buzz Aldrin quotes, then why not take a look at [outer space quotes], or [space exploration quotes].