It's remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.

Rule books are paper - they will not cushion a sudden meeting of stone and metal.

Anyone can do the job when things are going right. In this business we play for keeps.

There are two kinds of airplanes - those you fly and those that fly you . . . You must have a distinct understanding at the very start as to who is the boss.

Nobody who gets too damned relaxed builds up much flying time.

There is no more alluring airspace in the world than the slit up a China girl's dress.

Electronics were rascals, and they lay awake nights trying to find some way to screw you during the day. You could not reason with them. They had a brain and intestines, but no heart.

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you.

Flying is hypnotic and all pilots are willing victims to the spell.

MaCleod, since you've flown the SeaBee a lot you'll understand when I say it was the only airplane I ever owned that you could put in a dive, loose a cylinder and stall out!

I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2.

The stomach is a slave that must accept everything that is given to it, but which avenges wrongs as slyly as does the slave.

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite.

Her heart is older than her head; yea, her emotion is the mother of her reason

In this new world, this day and forever, then, we are not only Thebans - we are all Stepsons. We are all one Sacred Band. If you will have us. And mine will fight by yours, henceforth, as brothers.

There is little reason left for society to respect women as it once did. Women get knocked up. They don't marry. They have abortions. They go to bars. They get knocked up again.

Firmness is great; persistency is greater.

When you're doing the work you're meant to do, it feels right and every day is a bonus, regardless of what you're getting paid.

And leadership then is about mobilizing and engaging the people with the problem rather than trying to anesthetize them so you can go off and solve it on your own.

He slipped his hands around my waist and pulled me against him, tossing the ice cream cone over his shoulder. It landed with a splat on the sidewalk. 'So does that mean I have a varsity girlfriend?'

Sometimes sentiments were better left in song.