Comets Quotes

“I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that's what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it's only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing "tail" behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they're shooting stars! That's why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn't know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn't know existed in me... I see myself. I'm a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“You are damaged and broken and unhinged. But so are shooting stars and comets.”
― Nikita Gill

“It may well be on such a night of clouds and cruel colors that there is brought forth upon the earth such a portent as a respectable poet. You say you are a poet of law; I say you are a contradiction in terms. I only wonder there were not comets and earthquakes on the night you appeared in this garden.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

“Oh, dear me!" he lamented. "The raft has floated off and I suppose it's gone down that awful hole by now."
"Well, never mind. We're not on it," said Snufkin gaily. "What's a kettle here or there when you're out looking for a comet!”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“All the other stars keep to their courses, and go along just like trains on their rails, but comets can go absolutely anywhere; they pop up here and there wherever you least expect them."
"Like me," said Snufkin, laughing. "They must be sky-tramps!"
Moomintroll looked disapprovingly at him. "It's nothing to laugh at," he said. "It would be a terrible thing if a comet hit the earth.”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“And here I sit with my stamps in a complete muddle, and nobody has bothered to tell me what it's all about."
"Listen now, Hemul," said Snufkin slowly and clearly. "It's about a comet that is going to collide with the earth tomorrow."
"Collide?" said the Hemulen. "Has that anything to do with stamp-collecting?”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“Our hands have held the life of every atom, and our eyes read the stories, of each soul. Our mouths have spoken words, as old as speaking, and our feet have walked through the centuries of old. Our essence has embraced so many others, from the bumbling bees, to the comets in the skies. Star dust, is the stuff, of which we’re made of, and there ain’t enough words around, to describe.”
― Hendrith Smith, The Wealth Reference Guide: An American Classic

“This has completely disturbed my peace," he complained. "A philosopher should be protected against the rude happenings of everyday life."
"Never mind," said Moominmamma, consolingly. "You'll soon feel better."
"But I do mind," said the Muskrat peevishly. "Never any peace ... " And he mumbled on.”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“If you like comets, you should like fallen angels. The fallen angels were the ones unafraid to love, unafraid to fall, ready to burn.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Aristotle's opinion... that comets were nothing else than sublunary vapors or airy meteors... prevailed so far amongst the Greeks, that this sublimest part of astronomy lay altogether neglected; since none could think it worthwhile to observe, and to give an account of the wandering and uncertain paths of vapours floating in the Ether.”
― Edmond Halley

“Life is like a comet that briefly crosses the night sky without almost being noticed”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

“Yes, we all die but there's a tendency to focus on the end too much. Life can be a wondrous, sparkling comet trail that we leave in our wake for others to marvel at.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Muskrat was still lying in his hammock and thinking.
"Good afternoon, Uncle Muskrat!" said Moomintroll. "Do you know that things have begun to happen?"
"Nothing new in any case," said the Muskrat.
"Oh, yes," said Moomintroll. "Completely new. There are people in the forest making secret signs everywhere -- threats or warnings or something. When the silk-monkey and I came home a little while ago, somebody had arranged mamma's jam pears in a pattern that looked like a star with a tail.”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“Out to sea, the calm lagoon waters were darkening, while the comets overhead glowed brighter, omens in the gloaming.”
― Julian May, Perseus Spur

“Maybe some people don't feel scared when they think about comets and supernovas. Maybe they think it is wonderful.”
― Lydia Netzer, How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky

“... everything I was shattering into stars and galaxies and comets, nothing but pure, shining joy.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Frost and Starlight

“The Romans and Greeks believed that the appearance of comets, meteors, and meteor showers was portentous. They were signs that something good or bad had happened... or was about to happen. For me, that was the moment I fell in love with Xuan. That was the promise of a future filled with love... and beauty... and brilliance. That future began and ended with Xuan.”
― Kayla Cunningham

“Alone in the observatory late one night, I heard the telephone ring persistently. When I answered, a voice, betraying a well-advanced state of inebriation, said, “Lemme talk to a shtrominer.” “Can I help you?” “Well, see, we’re havin’ this garden party out here in Wilmette, and there’s somethin’ in the sky. The funny part is, though, if you look straight at it, it goes away. But if you don’t look at it, there it is.” The most sensitive part of the retina is not at the center of the field of view. You can see faint stars and other objects by averting your vision slightly. I knew that, barely visible in the sky at this time, was a newly discovered comet called Arend-Roland. So I told him that he was probably looking at a comet. There was a long pause, followed by the query: “Wash’ a comet?” “A comet,” I replied, “is a snowball one mile across.” There was a longer pause, after which the caller requested, “Lemme talk to a real shtrominer.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“The star we're looking for isn't so very friendly," said Moomintroll. "Quite the contrary, in fact."
"What did you say?" said Sniff.
Moomintroll went a bit red. "I mean -- stars in general," he said, "big and small, friendly and unfriendly, and so on."
"Can they be unfriendly?" asked Snufkin.
"Yes -- ones with tails," answered Moomintroll. "Comets."
At last it dawned on Sniff. "You're hiding something from me!" he said accusingly. "That pattern we saw everywhere, and you said it didn't mean anything!"
"You're too small to be told everything," answered Moomintroll.
"Too small!" screamed Sniff. "I must say it's a fine thing to take me on an expedition of discovery and not tell me what I'm supposed to be discovering!”
― Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland

“And the passing Comet, we wish-would cleanse our earth.”
― Danikelii

“But imagine,” said Mars, “being a comet. I want you to imagine a divine force in someone that pushes them through the world, infinitely, in each choice, melting barriers in its own perfect path, out your mouth, out from your hands, across countries, through rooms—”
“—through terror—”
“—past regulations—”
“—past people—”
“—every time—”
“—every day...”
“Their life would go so much further,” continued Mars, “so much—as if absorbing hundreds and hundreds of years of ordinary life experience while still their real age. If death is no secret, why do we hunch? That doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t get the hunching! We retreat even when we always know the most favorable thing to do. If you took every risk, you’d have everything. You’d have all that was all.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, A Happy Ghost

“The height of the Chacoan culture lasted from A.D. 1055 to 1083, corresponding to the period of most intense building activity. This period also produced the most startling series of events in the heavens that have taken place within the Iast few thousand years. In July 1054 the supernova which produced the Crab Nebula blazed in the daytime skies for three weeks and remained visible at night for nearly two years. Some twelve years later, in 1066, Halley's Comet appeared, frightening Europeans on the eve of the Battle of Hastings. Another decade later, on March 7, 1076, a total solar eclipse was visible south of Chaco Canyon. In 1077 sunspots large enough to be seen with the naked eye were reported in China, beginning a more than two-hundred-year period of unusual sunspot activity. And again on July 11, 1097, another total eclipse passed over the Southwest. The inhabitants of Chaco Canyon may have been so startled and puzzled by these events that they became devoted sky watchers, investing much more effort in astronomy than they might have had the heavens been ordinary and unchanging.”
― J. McKim Malville, Prehistoric Astronomy in the Southwest