John Glenn Quotes

As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.

The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.

To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.

We have an infinite amount to learn both from nature and from each other.

I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.

There are times when you devote yourself to a higher cause than personal safety.

I suppose the one quality in an astronaut more powerful than any other is curiosity. They have to get some place nobody's ever been.

Too many people, when they get old, think that they have to live by the calendar.

Zero G and I feel fine.

I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity.

You know, old folks can have dreams, too, as well as young folks, and then work toward them. And to have a dream like this come true for me is just a terrific experience.

There is still no cure for the common birthday.

This is a day we have managed to avoid for a quarter of a century. We've talked about it before and speculated about it, and it finally has occurred. We hoped we could push this day back forever.

Just because I'm 77 doesn't mean I don't have a dream.

The moment of twilight is simply beautiful.

I was sold on flying as soon as I had a taste for it.

We (the DOE) are poisoning our people in the name of national security.

That was a real fireball.

America had an emphasis on the individual and so education became available for everyone.

I still love to fly and I'll never get over that.

If we could do something that enhances the body's immune system here on Earth, it would be a tremendous step forward in the fight against disease and cancer and other things.

Americans just want us to... not be concerned if they can be constitutionally justified... Why, if we had to do that we could not pass most of the laws we enact around here.

I hate to think that we may be out there seven to ten years out and dependent on the Russians for our journey into space.

I still have my [flight] license and I can still pass a flight physical.

We had a lot of confidence that there was going to be a successful mission. We weren't off on some suicide effort, certainly [with Friendship 7].

I think that it's good for us to be able to travel in space and do research in space, and I emphasize the research, because space travel to me is far more than just seeing how far we can go.

I think we're a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there who would live their whole lives out there in space. I don't see that happening for quite some time.

If you go to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, you can see the burn patterns on Friendship 7.

Probably, had World War II not come along and intervened, I would have tried to be a doctor. My son's a doctor, and I still take some medical journals to this day.

Quite often, while I'm getting up in the morning, I think my warranty is running out on these body parts because it's not working quite the way it used to.

An end of something means the beginning of something else, and I don't think that something else is going to be the death of the manned space program.

I can't say I've ever had a dream about space or that I ponder it all the time.

The best space movie in my view is 'Apollo 13.' That's just the way it happened.

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.

Old folks have dreams and ambitions too, like everybody else. Don't sit on a couch someplace.

To look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible.

Fear connotes something that interferes with what you’re doing.

Love is a combination of friendship, passion, and respect.