I am a big fan of a quote from Hank Green in his 2011 video Top 5 Awesome Things About the Webb Telescope:

I personally believe that there are two ways to make the world a better place. You can decrease the suck, and you can increase the awesome.

He continues to provide some context specific to space exploration that’s important:

Now these are not mutually exclusive things. But they’re also not the same thing. And it’s clear that decreasing suck is extremely important - probably, in the end, more important than increasing awesome. And thus, when I talk about the space program, people are always like, “NASA’s money could be better spent on services for humanity!” And to them, I say: “I do not want to live in a world where we only focus on suck and never think about awesome.”

I think about this quote often, because we live in a world with a lot of suck in it. And in that context, it’s hard to sustain anything. It’s easier to just give up and feel like there’s no point in anything. So the longer quote isn’t as snappy, but the last part is the part that motivates me:

“I do not want to live in a world where we only focus on suck and never think about awesome.”