Today, we are on a path of decay. We are seeing the book close on five decades of accomplishment as the leader in human space exploration.

To become an astronaut, someone has to have a dream of his own to do something that he or she has always wanted to do, then commit himself to making that dream come true.

Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I'm still the last man to have walked on the moon, somewhat disappointing. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done.

Am I willing to go to Mars? Yes, but I'm not willing to spend nine months getting there, then wait 18 more months until the planets align to come home.

I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership in the world, to explore, to seek knowledge.

We found out the Gemini spacesuit was, well, oxygen was flowing to keep me cool as well as to breathe, and it wasn't good enough. My visor got fogged.

If as an adult I have scolded and then silenced the child within me, I contend that I am neither an adult nor a child. Rather, I am just plain ignorant.

He was driven to use the prerogatives of his profession, to act the parson.

The mentor-mentee relationship is ideally like that of the guru and disciple: motivated by the desire of the guru to impart knowledge to the disciple.

I like pencil skirts because they hug me in all the right places.

If you want to go somewhere, you have to put your family first.

I want to believe in the fairy tale.

Leaders think differently about themselves, and this distinguishes them from followers.

I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world.

It's kindness that helps people cope with a crisis.

The moral sense is the first excellence of well-organized man.