Great Aviation Quotes

Most pilots learn, when they pin on their wings and go out and get in a fighter, especially, that one thing you don't do, you don't believe anything anybody tells you about an airplane. ~ Chuck Yeager

No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once. ~ Otto Lilienthal

Who was the best pilot I ever saw? You're lookin' at 'im. ~ Gordon Cooper

The airplane is just a bunch of sticks and wires and cloth, a tool for learning about the sky and about what kind of person I am, when I fly. An airplane stands for freedom, for joy, for the power to understand, and to demonstrate that understanding. Those things aren't destructable. ~ Richard Bach

The Constitution: it's not just a good idea, it's the law. ~ Michael Badnarik

There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot. ~ Chuck Yeager

The best you can hope for is a great collaborator. ~ Lauren Graham

It's when things are going just right that you'd better be suspicious. There you are, fat as can be. The whole world is yours and you're the answer to the Wright brothers' prayers. You say to yourself, nothing can go wrong ... all my trespasses are forgiven. Best you not believe it. ~ Ernest K. Gann

For all professional pilots there exists a kind of guild, without charter and without by-laws. it demands no requirements for inclusion save an understanding of the wind, the compass, the rudder, and fair fellowship. ~ Beryl Markham

I decided that if I could fly for ten years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary life time. ~ Charles Lindbergh

I take the paraglider to the mountain or I roll Daisy out of her hangar and I pick the prettiest part of the sky and I melt into the wing and then into the air, till I'm just soul on a sunbeam. ~ Richard Bach

The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul. ~ Walter Alexander Raleigh

Real flight and dreams of flight go together. Both are part of the same movement. Not A before B, but all together. ~ Thomas Pynchon

When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experiences of nearly forty years at sea, I merely say uneventful. I have never been in an accident of any sort worth speaking about ... I never saw a wreck and have never been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort. ~ Edward Smith

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the selfsame winds that blow.
Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through the life:
Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife. ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes. ~ Charles A. Lindbergh

Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle. ~ Igor Sikorsky

I've learned that it is what I do not know that I fear, and I strive, outwardly from pride, inwardly from the knowledge that the unknown is what will finally kill me, to know all there is to be known about my airplane. I will never die. ~ Richard Bach

This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts, and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened it is about to. ~ Harry Reasoner

To put your life in danger from time to time ... breeds a saneness in dealing with day-to-day trivialities. ~ Nevil Shute

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time. ~ Ernest K. Gann

It is a good thing to learn caution from the misfortunes of others. ~ Publilius Syrus

Now listen, buddy, there are a few corny ideas you got to get out of your head if you're going to fly an airplane. Most things are just the reverse from what people think. The higher you are the safer you are. The Earth down there, that, that-s your enemy because once you hit that, boy, you splatter. ~ Dalton Trumbo

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off. ~ Chuck Yeager

A fierce and monkish art; a castigation of the flesh. You must cut out your imagination and not fly an airplane but regulate a half-dozen instruments ... At first, the conflicts between animal sense and engineering brain are irresistibly strong. ~ Wolfgang Langewiesche

The happily married man with a large family is the test pilot for me. ~ Nevil Shute

Thousands of volumes have been written about aviation, but we do not automatically have thousands of true and special friends in their authors. That rare writer who comes alive on a page does it by giving of himself, by writing of meanings, and not just of fact or of things that have happened to him. The writers of flight who have done this are usually found together in a special section on private bookshelves. ~ Richard Bach

Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me? ~ Mae West

What is it in fact, this learning to fly? To be precise, it is 'to learn NOT to fly wrong.' To learn to become a pilot is to learn - not to let oneself fly too slowly. Not to let oneself turn without accelerating. Not to cross the controls. Not to do this, and not to do that ... To pilot is negation. ~ Henri Mignet

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket. ~ Bevo Howard

A pilot who says he has never been frightened in an airplane is, I'm afraid, lying. ~ Louise Thaden

If black boxes survive air crashes - why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff? ~ George Carlin

The aeroplane has unveiled for us the true face of the earth. ~ Antoine De Saint Exupery

A pilot must have a memory developed to absolute perfection. But there are two higher qualities which he also must have. He must have good and quick judgment and decision, and a cool, calm courage that no peril can shake. ~ Mark Twain

I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world - British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese - and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience. ~ Chuck Yeager

Flying is hours and hours of boredom sprinkled with a few seconds of sheer terror. ~ Pappy Boyington

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you. ~ Ernest K. Gann

Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description. ~ Barry Goldwater

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit. ~ Chuck Yeager

I think it is a pity to lose the romantic side of flying and simply to accept it as a common means of transport, although that end is what we have all ostensibly been striving to attain. ~ Amy Johnson

The most beautiful dream that has haunted the heart of man since Icarus is today reality. ~ Louis Bleriot

I like Washington a great deal. I enjoyed living there. But then I've enjoyed living almost everywhere I've ever been. I just find that it's a different menu wherever you go. ~ Tom Brokaw

But that the reasoning from these facts, the drawing from them correct conclusions, is a matter of great difficulty, may be inferred from the imperfect state in which the Science is now found after it has been so long and so intensely studied. ~ Nassau William Senior

At least three times a week, I am overwhelmed with a wave of gratitude to New York City for providing me with a life. Not that my life is so great, although I think it's pretty nifty: I don't mine coal; I get paid to write. ~ David Rakoff

The Great Point lighthouse rose at the far end of the barrier beach, a tall white steeple to the sky, with a working light flashing at the top. Here was the end of the island, the great point where the Atlantic Ocean met Nantucket Sound in a froth of waves. All along the point, enormous fat seals lolled on the sand, occasionally lumbering in and out of the water, grunting and lounging like a tribe of overfed Roman emperors. ~ Nancy Thayer

When Arnold Schwarzenegger goes to his reward - how's that? That's a crack, but I treat Governor Schwarzenegger well in my book. He's done such great work in California; we'll forgive him one personal habit. Everybody should have one not-totally-CO2-friendly habit they can be forgiven for. So we'll forgive him that one. ~ Jay Inslee

Why did you hit him? (Grace) Because it gave me a great deal of pleasure. (Julian) Nice. You haven't seen me in what, two thousand years? So, instead of a friendly, brotherly hug, I get slugged. (Eros) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

I was fortunate to sell at a time of great sea change in the romance genre; suddenly heroines were allowed to be portrayed as having rich, fulfilling lives. They didn't need a man for security or self-esteem, but having that one very special man in their lives proved the icing on the cake. ~ JoAnn Ross

Can you just saw his arm off while we're here and get me loose? (Amanda)
I could do that, but he needs his more. I'd cut yours off before I did his. (Tate)
Oh, great, what are you, his Igor? (Amanda)
Wrong movie, Igor was Frankenstein's flunky. Renfield is the one you're thinking of, and no, I'm not Renfield. Name's Tate Bennett. Parish coroner. (Tate) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

I've always been a fan of [Mary Elizabeth Winstead's]. She gets to do some fun action-y stuff she brings this gritty swashbuckle to. I think there's a lot of movies that have women in peril running away from the scarier things and then end up being saved by a man, so it's great to see this character MacGyver her way out of situations, whether physically MacGyvering away, or mentally MacGyvering a way out of something. I relate to her more than I relate to most leading men in movies. ~ Dan Trachtenberg

Telling one lie begets another lie that begets another lie and before you know it that lie has grandkids, great grandkids and keeps growing. It's like Lay's Potato Chips, you can't tell just one! ~ Sanjo Jendayi

A great nation like the United States has many and varied interests, and we need both to do business with tyrants and to engage constantly in multilateral diplomacy. ~ Elliott Abrams

Vaclav Havel was the most amazing man in terms of being the combination of somebody with massive moral authority, great courage for having espoused the concepts of democracy, freedom throughout a very difficult communist period, a very modest man, and somebody with a fabulous sense of humor and the idea of being able to see the absurd in situations. ~ Judy Woodruff

I would never tell anybody to give up hockey - the great sports we have here - basketball, lacrosse - rugby coming into its own - we've got so many great team sports, and I say hold on to them. ~ George Vecsey

A man who thinks a great deal about himself will try to be many-sided, attempt a theatrical excellence at all points, will try to be an encyclopaedia of culture, and his own real personality will be lost in that false universalism. ~ G.K. Chesterton

It was always a great challenge: how can I make a dreampop album that's still very Alcest, but not a ripoff - how to keep the core. ~ Neige

Better was largely irrelevant when it came to mothering because the entire enterprise relied on the presumption that one day, sooner than you thought, your child would become an entirely self-reliant, independent person who made her own decisions. That child wouldn't necessarily remember the Halloween costumes you made from hand six years running. Or maybe she did, but she resented you for it because she'd wanted store-bought costumes just like all her friends. It didn't matter how great a mother you tried to be; eventually every child waled off in to the world alone. ~ Tara Conklin

If you were advising your great-granddaughter about the man you have a crush on at this moment-what would you tell her? Would you be protective, and tell her to kick this man to the curb because he's treating her so badly, or would you tell her to hold on to this man for dear life?
Now, why aren't you taking your own advice? ~ Kim Gruenenfelder

Well, the teacher I studied with for nineteen and a half years was a man named Paul Gavert. He was a great lieder singer, so basically I'm a trained lieder singer because of that teacher. The teacher I currently study with - since 1995 - is Joan Lader, who also studied with Gavert. ~ Betty Buckley

If only my folks had beaten me, I could have gotten some material about my miserable childhood. But as it is, I've had a great life. ~ Tim Conway

Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so great a portion of mankind, after nature has long since discharged them from external direction (naturaliter maiorennes), nevertheless remains under lifelong tutelage, and why it is so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if I can only pay - others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.
That the step to competence is held to be very dangerous by the far greater portion of mankind ... ~ Immanuel Kant

He wills that we take ourselves with great strength to the faith of holy Church and find there our most precious mother in comfort and true understanding with the whole communion of blessed ones. For a person by himself can frequently be broken, as it seems to himself, but the whole body of holy Church was never broken and never shall be, without end. Therefore it is a sure thing, a good thing, and a gracious thing to will meekly and powerfully to be fastened and joined to our mother, holy Church - that is Christ Jesus. ~ Julian Of Norwich

When I first started acting, I started in opera and had a great desire to play grand, tragic characters. I got sidetracked in musical theater and ended up doing a lot of comedy. ~ Leslie Easterbrook

I mean not to accuse any one, but to take the shame upon myself, in common, indeed, with the whole parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty - we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others; and I therefore deprecate every kind of reflection against the various descriptions of people who are more immediately involved in this wretched business. ~ William Wilberforce

I love handbags. And shoes. Investing in like a great handbag or a pair of shoes can really make or break an outfit. It's fun to mix and match high street with luxury brands and throw in a bit of vintage as well. ~ Miranda Kerr

Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work. ~ Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Fatherhood is great because you can ruin someone from scratch. ~ Jon Stewart

But, first, remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night. And whatever strange things may happen to you, let nothing turn your mind from following the signs. And secondly, I give you a warning. Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take great care that it does not confuse your mind. And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look, when you meet them there. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. ~ C.S. Lewis

Large cocktail parties are an infamous technique for ridding yourself of social obligations to people you usually don't know well or like much, which is such an unpromising beginning that I've rarely known one that recovered and turned into a great party. ~ Barbara Walters

I never really set out to research any of these stories. I try to lead an interesting life though. I guess the closest I came to research was when I applied to work at the state mental institution in Austin, TX. I wanted to work the night shift like Ken Kesey did when he wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I thought that might inspire me to write a book that great. ~ Arthur Bradford

The work of feeding and tending sheep is hard work, arduous work, and love for the sheep alone will not do it; you must have a consuming love for the Great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Alexander Strauch

little things please great minds. ~ G.K. Chesterton

Pace is crucial. Fine writing isn't enough. Writing students can be great at producing a single page of well-crafted prose; what they sometimes lack is the ability to take the reader on a journey, with all the changes of terrain, speed and mood that a long journey involves. Again, I find that looking at films can help. Most novels will want to move close, linger, move back, move on, in pretty cinematic ways. ~ Rose Tremain

I get so pissed off whenever someone looks at you wrong. Or says the wrong thing to you. Or posts pictures all over your locker. Or if they smile at you. Or call you beautiful. Or ... anything!" He released a breath and took a deep inhale. "Anything they do to hurt you or make you smile makes me want to attack." He exhaled. "And that doesn't really make for great ethics. ~ Brittainy C. Cherry

I guess it's like James Joyce when he was a kid, you know. He hung out with all the great writers of the day, and he was a little kid, like, with tennis shoes on, and they said 'Look at this lame!' They didn't use those words in those days. They said 'God, here comes this nut.' And he told them, 'I'm great!' And he sat with them, and he loved to be with them, and it ended up that he was great. ~ Art Pepper

It is tough, every time. The ensemble is great. I would always ask Andrew, "Is this how Hollywood is? Is this how every TV show and movie is?" And he was like, "No, dude. This is not. Do not get used to this. Be thankful that this is how your first gig is." ~ Steven Yeun

The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas. ~ Baruch Spinoza

Although God's people find many successes in the world, they must not fall prey to a spirit of pride. We succeed not because of our moral superiority but because of the faithfulness of our divine intercessor and because of the great mercy of God. ~ Max Anders

John 7:37-39 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. ~ Witness Lee

The Mac, on the other hand, would end up being as "insanely great" as Jobs and his acolytes could possibly make it - but it would not ship for another sixteen months, way behind schedule. ~ Walter Isaacson