As when astronaut Mike Mulhane was asked by a NASA psychiatrist what epitaph he'd like to have on his gravestone, Mulhane answered, "A loving husband and devoted father, " though in reality, he jokes in "Riding Rockets, " "I would have sold my wife and children into slavery for a ride into space. Mary Roach
About This Quote

This quote is an example of the danger of expecting too much from life. The astronaut, Mike Mulhane, who was chosen to go up in a rocket and leave his wife and children for several months, made a promise to himself to be a loving husband and devoted father when he returned. "I would have sold my wife and children into slavery for a ride into space," but it did not work out that way. His wife said later that she regretted ever getting on the rocket with him after their return.

Source: Packing For Mars: The Curious Science Of Life In The Void

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. - Marilyn Monroe

  2. When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable. - Jess C. Scott

  3. When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always. - Mahatma Gandhi

  4. Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having... - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  5. The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then... - Thomas Merton

More Quotes By Mary Roach
  1. It is astounding to me, and achingly sad, that with eighty thousand people on the waiting list for donated hearts and livers and kidneys, with sixteen a day dying there on that list, that more then half of the people in the position H's family...

  2. As when astronaut Mike Mulhane was asked by a NASA psychiatrist what epitaph he'd like to have on his gravestone, Mulhane answered, "A loving husband and devoted father, " though in reality, he jokes in "Riding Rockets, " "I would have sold my wife and...

  3. We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget.

  4. Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead, they will say. Ah, but there is.

  5. It would be especially comforting to believe that I have the answer to the question, What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that’s that–the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist? What will that feel...

Related Topics