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Neil Armstrong
30 quotes
“I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul ... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Apollo mission press conference (1969); ABC World News; also quoted in Of a Fire on the Moon (1970) by Norman Mailer, and in First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (2005) by James R. Hansen
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First words from the Apollo 11 lunar module Eagle after guiding the craft to a landing on the Moon at 4:17pm EDT (20 July 1969)
“That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Words said when Armstrong first stepped onto the Moon (20 July 1969) One Small Step, transcript of Apollo 11 Moon landing. In the actual sound recordings he apparently fails to say "a" before "man" and says: "That's one…
“I'm quite certain that we'll have such [lunar] bases in our lifetime, somewhat like the Antarctic stations and similar scientific outposts, continually manned.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BBC interview (1970)
“Through books you will meet poets and novelists whose creations will fire your imagination. You will meet the great thinkers who will share with you their philosophies, their concepts of the world, of humanity and of creation. You will learn about events that have shaped our history, of deeds both noble and ignoble. All of this knowledge is yours for the taking... Your library is a storehouse for mind and spirit. Use it well.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the children of Troy, Michigan on the opening of its Public Library (1971), in Why Libraries Matter: Letters to the Children of Troy, Michigan (From 1971), by Lucas Reilly, Mental Floss (3 July 2012)
“I remember on the trip home on Apollo 11 it suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The People's Almanac (1975) by David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace, p. 675
“I am comfortable with my level of public discourse.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declining to be interviewed for a magazine article, quoted in "Armstrong's Code" by Kathy Sawyer in Washington Post Magazine (11 July 1999)
“The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon. That was the time that we had achieved the national goal of putting Americans on the moon. The landing approach was, by far, the most difficult and challenging part of the flight. Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. So the feeling of elation accompanied the landing rather than the walking.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview at The New Space Race (August 2007)
“Space has not changed but technology has, in many cases, improved dramatically. A good example is digital technology where today's cell phones are far more powerful than the computers on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module that we used to navigate to the moon and operate all the spacecraft control systems.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the differences between the present and the time of the space race which existed during the Cold War years, in an interview at The New Space Race (August 2007)
“Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying. Pilots generally take pride in a good landing, not in getting out of the vehicle.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his famous moonwalk, as quoted in In the Shadow of the Moon : A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 (2007) by Francis French and Colin Burgess
“A century hence, 2000 may be viewed as quite a primitive period in human history. It's something to hope for. ... I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer — born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow. As an engineer, I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Engineered Century" remarks delivered during National Engineers Week on behalf of the National Academy of Engineering at the National Press Club (22 February 2000)
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am in the position of a pilot without his checklist, so I'll have to wing it a bit. ... [Prior to the Apollo missions,] no one knew what kind of person could be persuaded to take the trip. Prisoners were suggested. Soldiers could be ordered. Photographers could take pictures — and they're expendable. Doctors understood the limits of human physiology. Finally, both sides picked pilots.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being awarded a Congressional Gold Medal on (21 July 2009)
“I'll not assert that it was a diversion which prevented a war, but nevertheless, it was a diversion.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Apollo 11 40th anniversary celebration (2009), Armstrong discussed how the space race functioned politically Neil Armstrong's Giant Leap, by Chris Higgins, in Mental Floss (25 August 2012)
“Our autopilot was taking us into a very large crater, about the size of a big football stadium with steep slopes on the crater covered with very large rocks about the size of automobiles that was not the kind of place that I wanted to try to make the first landing.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I thought, well. when I step off it's just going to be a little step — a step from there down to there — but then I thought about all those 400,000 people who had given me the opportunity to make that step and thought it's going to be a big something for all those folks and, indeed for a lot of others that weren't even involved in the project, so it was kind of a simple correlation.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on Earth.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends and colleagues all of a sudden looked at us, treated us, slightly differently than had months or years before when we were working together. I never quite understood that.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We were involved in doing what many thought to be impossible, putting humans on Earth's moon.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Science fiction writers thought it would be possible. H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and other authors found ways to get people to the moon. But none of those writers foresaw any possibility of the lunar explorers being able to communicate with Earth, transmit data, position information, or transmit moving pictures of what they saw back to Earth. The authors foresaw my part of the adventure, but your part was beyond their comprehension.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the Apollo people were working hard, working long hours, and were dedicated to making certain everything they did, they were doing to the very best of their ability.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be impossible to overstate the appreciation that we on the crew feel for your dedication and the quality of your work.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was great uncertainty about how well we would be able to walk in our cumbersome pressurized suit.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Preflight planners wanted us to stay in TV range so that they could learn from our results how they could best plan for future missions. I candidly admit that I knowingly and deliberately left the planned working area out of TV coverage to examine and photograph the interior crater walls for possible bedrock exposure or other useful information.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Later Apollo flights were able to do more and move further in order to cover larger areas, particularly when the Lunar Rover vehicle became available in 1971.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President's plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years. Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is true that we were cautious in our planning. There were many uncertainties about how well our Lunar module systems and our Pressure suit and backpack would match the engineering predictions in the hostile lunar environment. We were operating in a near perfect vacuum with the temperature well above 200 degrees Fahrenheit with the local gravity only one sixth that of Earth. That combination cannot be duplicated here on Earth, but we tried as best we could to test our equipment for those conditions. For example, because normal air conditioning is inadequate for lunar conditions, we were required to use cold water to cool the interior of our suits. We did not have any data to tell us how long the small water tank in our backpacks would suffice. NASA officials limited our surface working time to 2 and 3/4 hours on that first surface exploration to assure that we would not expire of hyperthermia.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During my testimony (to the House Science and Technology Committee) in May I said, “Some question why Americans should return to the Moon. “After all,” they say “we have already been there.” I find that mystifying. It would be as if 16th century monarchs proclaimed that “we need not go to the New World, we have already been there.” Or as if President Thomas Jefferson announced in 1803 that Americans “need not go west of the Mississippi, the Lewis and Clark Expedition has already been there.” Americans have visited and examined 6 locations on Luna, varying in size from a suburban lot to a small township. That leaves more than 14 million square miles yet to explore.”
Neil Armstrong (1930–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source