Earth Is The Cradle Of Humanity But One Cannot Remain In The Cradle Forever

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky said this in 1895. Since he said it in Russian, there are various translations; others include "Earth is the cradle of humanity ..." and "Earth is the cradle of the mind ...".

I'm pretty sure it's life, or 'zhizn' actually.

A very great deal of SF revolves around this sentiment.

Tsiolkovskii's other famous quote was 'Space will provide us with mountains of bread.' Quite how it would do this he wasn't too sure, but the quote was 'Trotskii'd out' of most Soviet sources after 1957, when the Russians got into space and the mountains of bread were rather visibly absent....

Alternative singalong version, from Return To The Forbidden Planet:

"We gotta get out into space / if it's the last thing we ever do / we gotta get out into space / girl there's a better life for me and you"

Now the motto for the ESA's Aurora programme. Someone's been reading their Isaac Asimov...

Or their Baxter- mind you, in that case it's often not so much "We are philosophically obliged to spread our wings beyond the cradle" as it is "Incoming! Every one for themselves!"

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