To shoot for the stars means to have a very high or ambitious goal that you want to achieve. It is a metaphor that compares reaching your dreams to aiming at the stars, which are very far and hard to reach. The phrase is often used to encourage people to pursue their passions and believe in themselves, even if their goals seem impossible or unrealistic. For example, someone who wants to be an astronaut might be told to shoot for the stars, because it is a very difficult and rare profession, but also very rewarding and exciting.
Some possible origins of the phrase are:
- The ancient Greek myth of Icarus, who tried to fly too close to the sun with wings made of wax and feathers, but fell into the sea when his wings melted. This story is often used as a warning against being too ambitious or reckless, but it could also inspire people to aim high and take risks.
- The Latin phrase “per aspera ad astra”, which means “through hardships to the stars”. This motto is used by many organizations and institutions, such as NASA, the US Air Force Academy, and the Royal Air Force. It suggests that achieving great things requires overcoming challenges and difficulties.
- The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote in his essay “Circles” in 1841: “The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already deduced, in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action. Another analogy we shall now trace; that every action admits of being outdone. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.”
This passage implies that there is no limit to human potential and exploration, and that we should always strive to expand our horizons and discover new possibilities.
