Throughout our discussions and searching inquiries one object figured ever more prominently—the moon. We learned that it was technologically possible to develop a program to reach the moon, and we came to realize that since the Russians did not then have the ability to reach the moon any more than we did, we had at least a fifty-fifty chance of beating them there. Moreover, a moon-landing goal would give a dramatic focus to a space program designed to develop our skills and capacities on a broad technological front.]

The small shoots ... must be nipt off.

Frost was a stuck record. 'He said it in passing, I ignored him, felt like saying his whole life was a mistake, now I see he was trying to tell me something.'

Thus, ere the ſeeds of vice were ſown, / Liv'd men in better ages born, / Who plow'd with oxen of their own / Their ſmall paternal field of corn.