"This must be what God sees. I was absolutely awestruck, not so much at what we had accomplished but at what made the accomplishment possible. A machine produced by more than three hundred thousand Americans was circling the moon with three human beings aboard for the first time in history."

“Long before the moon mission, I had told NASA that Apollo 8 would be my last flight. It was a decision reached after a long talk with Susan, although the decision was strictly mine.”

“There was one more impression we wanted to transmit: our feeling of closeness to the Creator of all things. This was Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, and I handed Jim and Bill their lines from the Holy Scriptures.”

“When you're finally up at the moon looking back on earth, all those differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend, and you're going to get a concept that maybe this really is one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people.”

“A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.”