The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light, and underscores our responsibility and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.