Aviation Quotes and Proverbs

No one can realize how substantial the air is, until he feels its supporting power beneath him. It inspires confidence at once. Otto.Lilienthal, German inventor of the first successful glider, 1893
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. Most often attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci  but more likely the words of
John H. Secondari

If you’re thinking about being a pilot it’s no use keeping your feet on the ground when your dreams are up in the sky. Anthony T.Hincks

Gliders, sailplanes, they are wonderful flying machines. It’s the closest you can come to being a bird. Neil Armstrong 

More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination. Wilbur Wright Early aviator

The exhilaration of flying is too keen, the pleasure too great, for it to be neglected as a sport.     Orville Wright

To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home Jerry Crawford

Man alone resists the direction of gravitation: he constantly wants to fall–upwards. Freiderich Neitzsche

Flying is more than a sport and more than a job; flying is pure passion and desire, which fill a lifetime.     Adolf Galland

Same with anyone who’s been flying for years and loves it still… we’re part of a world we deeply love. Just as musicians feel about scores and melodies, dancers about the steps and flow of music, so we’re one with the principle of flight, the magic of being aloft in the wind! Richard Bach – Author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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

There is an art to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Sometimes, flying feels too godlike to be attained by man. Sometimes, the world from above seems too beautiful, too wonderful, too distant for human eyes to see.     Charles Lindbergh

Basic Flying Rules.…Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the
edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of
ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more
difficult to fly there.

Mankind has a perfect record in aviation … we never left one up there!

If a woman wants to fly, first of all she must, of course, abandon skirts and don a knickerbocker uniform. Harriet Quimby

I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty. Amelia Earhart

I hate sailing! Troy Bradley, after landing his balloon in the ocean

I know that experts say you’re more likely to get hurt crossing the street than you are flying, but that doesn’t make me any less frightened of flying. If anything, it makes me more afraid of crossing the street. Ellen DeGeneres

I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Wilbur Wright

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

Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.     James Dickey

You’re flying Buzz! No Woody we’re falling in style! Walt Disney

My dad has given me the best gift anyone has ever given me. He gave me wings to fly!. Adria Arjona Actress

To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything. Otto Lilienthal

I think it is a pity to lose the romantic side of flying and simply to accept it as a common means of transport. Amy Johnson

Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.     Ferdinand Foch

I have always felt it is my destiny to build a machine that would allow man to fly. Leonardo da Vinci

High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

If God had intended us to fly, he’d have never given us railways.
Michael Flanders Actor

Maybe that’s why I like gymnastics – because I like to fly. Nadia Comaneci

As a four-year-old, my mother told me I was climbing the fence, jumping off and calling myself an 'eppyplane'... I bought books on aeroplanes, I followed everything in the newspapers about aeroplanes. Amy Johnson flew to Australia in 1930 - why couldn't I do something like that? - Nancy Bird Walton
Nancy Bird Walton Interview with George Negus on “George Negus Tonight”, March 8, 2004.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C S Lewis

How do can you know if there’s a pilot present at a party? They will tell you!

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind. Leonardo da Vinciy

If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets. - Mel Brooks

Flying is a lot like playing a musical instrument; you’re doing so many things and thinking of so many other things, all at the same time. It becomes a spiritual experience.     Dusty Mctavish

I just want that sensation you have in dreams when you fly to be real. Janet Montgomery

As a child, I dreamed that my bed could fly and glide and swoop and hover high over the countryside near my home while, snug and secure, I looked down in wonder at the great carpet of life that seemed so perfect beneath me. Michael Leunig Cartoonist

Airspeed, altitude, and brains. Two are always needed to successfully
complete the flight.

You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky. Amelia Earhart

The people of Sydney who can speak of my work [on flying-machine models] without a smile are very scarce; it is doubtless the same with American workers. I know that success is dead sure to come, and therefore do not waste time and words in trying to convince unbelievers. - Lawrence Hargrave
Lawrence Hargrave Australian aeronautical pioneer

A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them. Seneca, Roman philosopher, 1st century AD

Helicopters don’t fly, they vibrate so badly the ground rejects them. Tom Clancy

I decided blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I had faced, so I decided to open a flying school and teach other black women to fly. Bessie Coleman American aviatrix

I decided to fly through the air and live in the sunlight and enjoy life as much as I could. Evel Knievel

I was flying planes before I was driving cars. I started gliding when I was fourteen, about when I started photographing. I was a geeky kid, and the camera was a way in high school for me to have some power. Flying was, too, I guess. - Michael Light
Michael Light is an aerial photographer and bookmaker focused on the environment and in particular, landscapes.

My soul is in the sky. William Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Act V. Scene I

Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death I Shall Fear No Evil For I am
80,000 feet and Climbing. Sign over the entrance to the SR-71
operating location on Kadena AB Okinawa.

Father, we thank you, especially for letting me fly this flight – for the privilege of being able to be in this position, to be in this wondrous place, seeing all these many startling, wonderful things that you have created. Gordon Cooper American astronaut

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud. Carl Sandburg

I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly. John Denver

If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can't be flocking with the turkeys. - Warren Buffett

I give that landing a 9 . . . on the Richter scale!

The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it. J M Barrie, Peter Pan 

I was hooked on aviation, made model airplanes, and never thought I would be able to fly myself. It cost too much. But then World War II came along and changed all that. John Glenn

The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together. Bill Gates

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.
Michael Althsuler

Man must rise above the Earth – to the top of the atmosphere and beyond – for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives. Socrates