MOON QUOTES
quotations about the moon
When the clear, bright moon, climbs up full in view, the silvery forms of bygone ages hover up and soften the delight of contemplation.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
attributed, Day's Collacon
The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It's always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it's a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.
TAHEREH MAFI
Shatter Me
I feel a little like the moon who took possession of you for a moment and then returned your soul to you. You should not love me. One ought not to love the moon. If you come too near me, I will hurt you.
ANAÏS NIN
Delta of Venus
It is the very error of the moon:
She comes more nearer earth than she was wont,
And makes men mad.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Othello
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
W. B. YEATS
"The Cat and the Moon"
The moon does not fight. It attacks no one. It does not worry. It does not try to crush others. It keeps to its course, but by its very nature, it gently influences. What other body could pull an entire ocean from shore to shore? The moon is faithful to its nature and its power is never diminished.
MING-DAO DENG
Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony
The moon has but one side of light and beauty,
The other, steeped in never-ending night,
Seems worse than dead, as in the harmony
Of spheres, she cannot even echo. And
She died they say, for love of her great brother,
The glorious Sun, whom she may never reach,
Condemned to be apart, for that great sin
Of love.
CARMEN SYLVA
"In the Dark"
The moon ... is a mad woman holding up her dress
So that her white belly shines.
Haughty,
Impregnable,
Ridiculous,
Silent and and white as a debauched queen.
EVELYN SCOTT
"Autumn Night"
The moon witnesses the scenes of true love, but discloses them not.
YEMON
attributed, Day's Collacon
Throughout history we've dreamed of the moon, and wondered if people would ever go there. The magnificence of our achievement for humanity was that we were there. But when I looked around I saw the most desolate sight imaginable. No oxygen, no life, just the lunar surface that hasn't changed for thousands of years--and the blackness of the sky. It was the most desolate thing I could ever think of. And that's why I said those words: the magnificence of the achievement and the desolation of where we were.
BUZZ ALDRIN
"Buzz Aldrin Hates Being Called the Second Man on the Moon", National Geographic, April 18, 2016
The chimneys, rank on rank, cut the clear sky; the moon, with a rag of gauze about her loins, poses among them, an awkward Venus.
RICHARD ALDINGTON
"Evening"
Up the sky in silence holy
Comes the young moon slowly, slowly,
Softly with her light divine,
Filling, like a cup with wine.
ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN
"Karl"
The moon insists on simplicity. The free-verse epic becomes a sonnet, the sonnet a limerick, the limerick babytalk, the babytalk the beat of a drum. Eventually there's nothing but the rhythm of blind and deafened need. It's peace, of a sort, a return to original silence.
GLEN DUNCAN
By Blood We Live
In the flood of her joy, the Moon filled the room like a phosphoric atmosphere, like a luminous poison.
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
"The Favours of the Moon"
The moon likes secrets ... and secret things. She lets mysteries bleed into her shadows and leaves us to ask whether they originated from otherworlds, or from our own imaginations.
CHARLES DE LINT
Dreams Underfoot
The moonlight builds its cold chapel
again out of piecemeal darkness.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
"Chapel"
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And through this distemperature we see
The seasons alter.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev'ryone come on
JOHN LENNON
Instant Karma
I hate the noon--give me the moon,
And dewy nights in May or June.
THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY
Romance For Me
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Address at Rice University, September 12, 1962