Astronaut Quotes

"I got this letter asking me if I wanted to or if I would consider going to experimental test pilot school and becoming the first Negro astronaut and I thought it was crazy."

"I was welding art from my house, making abstract figures out of metal."

"I went to white schools and I didn't know anything about black history."

"What people don't know is art was my deal and engineering was my sidebar."

"Regardless of what you feel about Obama and his politics - screw all that. The fact of the matter is, he was the first black guy to be the president of the United States. The history is still being made."

"There's always a fine line that divides hostility from neutrality, and I don't want to pass that line."

"From the time I was a little itty-bitty kid, I was going to the airport every day. I began to study all the airplanes, and I'd draw all the airplanes."

"I wanted to be on the cover of Life magazine."

"You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty."

"I happen to be privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet, and the UFO phenomenon is real."

"My wife tells me I am a male chauvinist pig and I have to sort of admit it. In my office and in my home, I'm not very democratic. I think of myself as a benevolent dictator."

"Our mission on Apollo 14 was to be the first to do science on the moon, so we had to be careful about getting everything in during the allotted time."

"I had studied at Harvard and MIT astronomy and a lot about the heavens and the star system and so forth."

"Death may simply be an alteration in consciousness, a transition for continued life in a nonmaterial form."

"We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

"I don't think there is much value in trying to use the moon as a base to go to Mars. That's going into one gravity belt and having to get back out of it again. And the moon doesn't have a lot to offer as a resource base."

"We do need different types of propulsion to get to Mars. I wrote one of the first Ph.D. theses on that in the 1960s."

"We need a community of nations capable of space flight because we all have to be off this planet sometime in the future. Our sun is going to burn out eventually, and we are not in a sustainable situation."

"When we get out to other planets in the solar system, we'll use the gravitational pull of each planet to help launch us to the next."

"If we continue to develop our space program we can take solar energy and convert it to electrical energy by beaming it back to earth."

"I do hope to make a moon flight sometime."

"I'm a fighter, not a quitter. Look what I did to get into the space program."

"I'm fortunate to have viewed our Earth from the moon and that vision has convinced me that technology and commitment will conquer any challenge."

"If you're willing to work hard you can do whatever you want to do."

"I'm a shining example of what happens if you're willing to work hard."

"I'm no different than anyone else."

"Congress must recognize that free enterprise is the cornerstone of this nation's economy."

"I like to see the flag up flying proudly. When I'm in space I represent that flag."

"I worked after school and Saturdays to save money to take an hour of flying, even though I couldn't solo."

"I don't think I'm confirmed bachelor."