Some people will always be volunteers to explore, and it is, in my mind, a privilege.

You're always under the microscope, and you don't know which mission you're going to get. It's a surprise.

When you're a little different than others, it takes a little more time to fit in. If you really want to be there, there are no ingredients you need other than effort, perseverance and teamwork.

A lot of people, I think, would love to see the earth from above, wear a spacesuit. Certainly, when I was a kid, I wanted to wear a spacesuit.

Most people here don't have a wide emotional range. It's just the type of people astronauts are, they're required to be level.

Definitely you don't become famous by doing something bad; that's a professional death sentence.

I'm 45, and I'm still at school, essentially. Even after being assigned to the mission, I had to write a number of exams, with people commenting on my performance.

Nobody is going anywhere in 10 years.

On the day a country decides not to invest a cent in innovation, discovery or exploration, that country decides to be a tributary to others.

The opportunities to become an astronaut in Canada were far and few.

I am definitely a little more nervous for my colleagues when I'm working at mission control than I am myself, on the shuttle.

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

The Bible says we need to love our enemies, bless our enemies. It does not say we should assume our enemies' priorities.

The women one meets - what are they but books one has already read? You're a library of the unknown, the uncut. Upon my word I've a subscription.

A final word of advice: don't gloat about how well you have done.

I'm not someone who ever enjoys violence against women or children.

Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement.

I would often be a coward, but for the shame of it.

The problem with University degrees, particularly the more spectacular ones, is that people who possess them can fall into the trap of thinking people who don't have them don't know anything.

It was a struggle financing CNN, but I did it without ever asking the government for a nickel.

After seeing kids play polo against big guys, it only shows that horses are the greatest equalizer in the world. No matter what you weigh, the little fellow is your equal on a horse.