Famous Buzz Aldrin Quotes

Gentry conjures up a story about meeting moon-walking astronaut Buzz Aldrin at a party at the Malibu home of Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling. “So it’s a full moon, beautiful night,” says Gentry, “and I’m trying to think of something to say to this famous guy, and finally I say, ‘Buzz, damn, you ever look up and see the moon and think to yourself how people stare at it all the time and write poems about it, and you walked on it? You walked on it.’ “And Buzz looks at me and shrugs and says, ‘No. Fuck no.’ ” Gentry shakes his head. “Damn, you can even be cynical if you walked on the moon,” he says. “Isn’t that something?

Buzz Aldrin became one of the most famous humans on the planet on July 20, 1969, when he walked on the moon. It was an astounding feat, possibly the most incredible thing humans have ever accomplished. But Buzz was the second human to walk on the moon, stepping foot on the lunar surface minutes after Neil Armstrong. Fellow astronaut Michael Collins once explained of Aldrin, known to be cantankerous and for fame not wearing well on him: “I think [Buzz] resents not being first on the moon more than he appreciates being second.” Jealousy is such a powerful thing. It’s difficult to appreciate what you have and what you’ve accomplished, because beyond a basic level of necessities, what you often want is to place yourself in a higher ring of the social hierarchy. So everything you’ve accomplished is relative to other people, and you often crave most whatever someone else has but you don’t.