My family came in 1635 from England and settled in Williamsburg. Shortly after, they split up; half went to New England and half stayed in Virginia. I'm a Virginian Ballard. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
I think the most important thing people can do to save our planet and the human race is to empower women! — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
Follow your own passion - not your parents', not your teachers' - yours. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
If you compare NASA's annual budget to explore the heavens, that one year budget would fund NOAA's budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
Everyone is an explorer. How could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it? — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
My final question: Why are we not looking at moving out onto the sea? Why do we have programs to build a habitation on… — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
There are more active volcanoes beneath the sea than on land by two orders of magnitude. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
What drives me is exploration with a purpose, more the classic Royal Geographical Society genre. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
There's probably more history now preserved underwater than in all the museums of the world combined. And there's no law governing that history. It's… — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
You don't go to Gettysburg with a shovel, you don't take belt buckles off the Arizona. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
Most of the southern hemisphere is unexplored. We had more exploration ships down there during Captain Cook's time than now. It's amazing. — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was… — Robert Ballard Copy Share Image
![“The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight-previously thought to be the font of all Earth's life-has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical…” quote by Robert Ballard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/623/robert-ballard-13392_black_the-fact-that-this-chain-of-life-existed_1174978.jpg)