I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership in the world, to explore, to seek knowledge.

Once I finally stepped on the moon, no matter what was to come of the next three days - or the rest of my life - nobody could take those steps from me. People ask how long will they be there, and I say forever, however long forever is, like my daughter’s initials that I scribbled in the sand [TDC for Tracy Dawn Cernan].

OK, let's get this mother out of here.

Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.

People try to typecast astronauts as heroic and superhuman. We're only human beings.

I'm quite disappointed that I'm still the last man on the moon.

Perhaps the two greatest moments of my life were standing on the moon and being outside of the room when my granddaughter was born! We tend not to remember the worst.