What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.

Norman Cousins (1915–1990), longtime editor of the Saturday Review and a prominent public intellectual, often used contemporary events to argue for a more humane, globally minded politics. In the wake of the Apollo moon landings (1969) and the circulation of iconic photographs of Earth from space, Cousins repeatedly emphasized the “overview” effect: seeing Earth as a single, fragile home without visible borders. The remark belongs to his broader late‑1960s/1970s commentary linking technological triumph to moral responsibility—suggesting that the space program’s deepest legacy might be a transformed self-understanding rather than a purely scientific or nationalist achievement.

The sentence reverses the expected hierarchy of achievements. Instead of treating the moon landing as the culmination—“men set foot on the moon”—Cousins argues the greater significance is perceptual and ethical: “they set eye on the earth.” The shift from conquest to contemplation reframes space travel as a mirror held up to humanity. By seeing Earth from afar, people can recognize its unity, vulnerability, and the arbitrariness of divisions that fuel conflict. The quote thus functions as a moral aphorism: technological power matters most when it enlarges empathy and stewardship, turning exploration outward into responsibility inward.