Aviation Quotes - Page 15

• This strongly asserted but ill-defined license to kill without accountability is not an entitlement which the United States or other states can have without doing grave damage to the rules designed to protect the right to life and prevent extrajudicial executions.

  Philip Alston

  Accountability, United States, Air Power

  "U.N. report faults prolific use of drone strikes by U.S." by David S. Cloud, articles.latimes.com. June 3, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ships are to little purpose without skillful Sea Men.

  Richard Hakluyt

  Men, Sea, Purpose

  5 Copy quote

• One can get a proper insight into the practice of flying only by actual flying experiments. . . . The manner in which we have to meet the irregularities of the wind, when soaring in the air, can only be learnt by being in the air itself. . . . The only way which leads us to a quick development in human flight is a systematic and energetic practice in actual flying experiments.

  Otto Lilienthal

  Air, Wind, Practice

  11 Copy quote

• Hereafter, if you should observe an occasion to give your officers and friends a little more praise than is their due, and confess more fault than you can justly be charged with, you will only become the sooner for it, a great captain.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Giving, Littles, Captains

  Benjamin Franklin (1888). “The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin: Including His Private as Well as His Official and Scientific Correspondence, and Numerous Letters and Documents Now for the First Time Printed, with Many Others Not Included in Any Former Collection, Also, the Unmutilated and Correct Version of His Autobiography”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A small craft in the ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship. The skipper's brain is the vessel's brain and he must give up his soul to her, regardless of his own feelings or inclinations.

  Tristan Jones

  Giving Up, Ocean, Soul

  Tristan Jones (1990). “One Hand for Yourself, One for the Ship: The Essentials of Single-Handed Sailing”, p.26, Sheridan House, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned, for he will be going out on a day when he shouldn't.

  John Millington Synge

  Men, Sea, Going Out

  Maurice Good, John Millington Synge (1973). “John Synge comes next”

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

  John Ray

  Men, Sea, Pilots

  John Ray, John Belfour (1813). “A complete collection of English proverbs: also, the most celebrated proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish, and other languages”, p.4

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• In an imperfect world perfection is not instantly available. Railroad safety, for instance, cannot be secured by mechanical devices alone. It is primarily a resultant of care and discipline.

  Ivy Lee

  Imperfect World, Discipline, Safety

  13 Copy quote

• Every flying machine has its own unique characteristics, some good, some not so good. Pilots naturally fly the craft in such a manner as to take advantage of its good characteristics and avoid the areas where it is not so good.

  Neil Armstrong

  Unique, Flying, Machines

  "Landing on the Moon: Apollo 11, The Untold Story". www.popularmechanics.com. May 27, 2009.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be alone in the air at night is to be very much alone indeed. . . cut off from everything and everyone . . . nothing is 'familiar' any longer . . . . I think that unfamiliarity is the most difficult thing to face; one feels rather like Alice in Wonderland after she has nibbled the toadstool that made her grow smaller - and like Alice, one hopes that the process will stop while there is still something left!

  Pauline Gower

  Cutting, Night, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• You've got to expect things are going to go wrong. And we always need to prepare ourselves for handling the unexpected.

  Neil Armstrong

  Needs, Unexpected

  103 Copy quote

• The pilot is still the pilot, whether he is at a remote console or on the flight deck. With the potential for thousands of these unmanned aircraft in use years from now, the standards for pilot training need to be set high to ensure that those on the ground and other users of the airspace are not put in jeopardy.

  Mark Rosenker

  Years, Training, Needs

  5 Copy quote

• Prepare for the unknown, unexpected and inconceivable . . . after 50 years of flying I'm still learning every time I fly.

  Gene Cernan

  Years, Flying, Unexpected

  46 Copy quote

• It is not easy to be the best. You must have the courage to bear pain, disappointment, and heartbreak. You must learn how to face danger and understand fear, yet not be afraid. You establish your goal, and no matter what deters you along the way, in your every waking moment you must say to yourself, "I could do it."

  Betty Skelton Erde

  Pain, Disappointment, Goal

  17 Copy quote

• Between the amateur and the professional . . . there is a difference not only in degree but in kind. The skillful man is, within the function of his skill, a different psychological organization. . . . A tennis player or a watchmaker or an airplane pilot is an automatism but he is also criticism and wisdom.

  Bernard DeVoto

  Wisdom, Airplane, Player

  19 Copy quote

• I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I'll be damned if I'll pay them to just sit there.

  Eddie Rickenbacker

  Guy, Pay, Ifs

  22 Copy quote

• It occurred to me that if I did not handle the crash correctly, there would be no survivors.

  Richard Leakey

  Would Be, Survivor, Crash

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, Strong, Airplane

  7 Copy quote

• And he supposed it might not be the best of days. But then, he was flying the mails and was not expected to squat on the ground like a frightened canary every time there was a cloud in the sky. If a pilot showed an obvious preference for flying only in the best conditions he soon found himself looking for work. This was the way of his life and he had always ascended when others had found excuse to keep their feet on the ground.

  Ernest K. Gann

  Clouds, Sky, Feet

  21 Copy quote

• I just made a balls of it, old boy. That's all there was to it.

  Douglas Bader

  Boys, Balls, Made

  22 Copy quote

• It's hard to replace the gray matter that is inherent in every human being. No computer can do it quite that well yet.

  John P. Jumper

  Gray Matter, Computer, Wells

  5 Copy quote

• Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness. But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; in the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind.

  Robin Olds

  Attitude, Eye, Self Confidence

  Christina Olds, Ed Rasimus, Robin Olds (2010). “Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds”, p.291, Macmillan

  126 Copy quote

  Show source

• The good thing about flying solo is it's never boring.

  Steve Fossett

  Flying, Boring, Good Things

  8 Copy quote

• Strive for simplicity. You never have to fix what you leave out.

  Bill Lear

  Simplicity, Strive

  6 Copy quote

• As to rocket ships flying between America and Europe, I believe it is worth seriously trying for. Thirty years ago persons who were developing flying were laughed at as mad, and that scorn hindered aviation. Now we heap similar ridicule upon stratoplane or rocket ships for trans-Atlantic flights.

  Auguste Piccard

  Believe, Years, Europe

  7 Copy quote