243 quotes found
"If you don't have a consensus that it's nonsense, you don't have a breakthrough."
"I strongly feel that, if we are successful, our program will mark the beginning of a renaissance for manned space flight. This might even be similar to that wonderful time period between 1908 and 1912 when the world went from a total of ten airplane pilots to hundreds of airplane types and thousands of pilots in 39 countries. We need affordable space travel to inspire our youth, to let them know that they can experience their dreams, can set significant goals and be in a position to lead all of us to future progress in exploration, discovery and fun. Thanks to the X PRIZE [Foundation] for the inspiration."
"To have breakthroughs, you must have confidence in nonsense, okay? That's why only weird guys tend to have the breakthroughs: a sensible person won't have a breakthrough 'cause he writes it off real quickly as nonsense and, therefore, he doesn't ever do something that's nonsense."
"Most people: they take birth. Earn a living, and, then, they die. Never follow them."
"If you want to shine like a star, first you have to burn like a star."
"Dream, dream, dream. Dreams transform into thoughts and thoughts result in action."
"The best brains of a nation may be in the last bench of a classroom."
"Excellence happens not by accident, it is a process."
"Small aim is a crime, have a great aim."
"Creativity is seeing the same thing, but thinking differently."
"I am really overwhelmed. Everywhere both in Internet and in other media, I have been asked for a message. I was thinking what message I can give to the people of the country at this juncture."
"We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage."
"If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher."
"Many, many citizens have also expressed the same wish. It only reflects their love and affection for me and the aspiration of the people. I am really overwhelmed by this support. This being their wish, I respect it. I want to thank them for the trust they have in me."
"Thinking should become your capital asset, whatever ups and downs you may come across in your life."
"Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy but to help you realize your hidden potential and power. Let difficulties know that you too are difficult."
"All birds find shelter during a rain, but eagle avoids rain by flying above the clouds. Problems are common, but attitude makes the difference."
"If you fail, never give up because F.A.I.L. means "First Attempt In Learning". End is not the end, in fact E.N.D. means "Effort Never Dies." If you get No as an answer, remember N.O. means "Next Opportunity". So let's be positive."
"You have to dream before your dreams can come true."
"Don’t take rest after your first victory, because if you fail in the second, more lips are waiting to say that your first victory was just luck."
"All of us do not have equal talent. But, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talents."
"Excellence is a continuous process and not an accident."
"Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow."
"We are all born with a divine fire in us. Our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness."
"Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work."
"Man needs difficulties in life because they are necessary to enjoy the success."
"I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters."
"I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which takes man away from God. As I look at it, the path of science can always wind through the heart. For me, science has always been the path to spiritual enrichment and self-realisation."
"… the best way to win was to not need to win. The best performances are accomplished when you are relaxed and free of doubt."
"One of the important functions of prayer, I believe, is to act as a stimulus to creative ideas. Within the mind are all the resources required for successful living. Ideas are present in the consciousness, which when released and given scope to grow and take shape, can lead to successful events. God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps to tap and develop these powers."
"My impression of the American people can be summarized by a quotation from Benjamin Franklin, "Those things that hurt instruct!" I realised that people in this part of the world meet their problems head on. They attempt to get out of them rather than suffer them."
"I often read Khalil Gibran, and always find his words full of wisdom. "Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man's hunger"—those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around. If you are a writer who would secretly prefer to be a lawyer or a doctor, your written words will feed but half the hunger of your readers; if you are a teacher who would rather be a businessman, your instructions will meet but half the need for knowledge of your students; if you are a scientist who hates science, your performance will satisfy but half the needs of your mission."
"I have always been a religious person in the sense that I maintain a working partnership with God. I was aware that the best work required more ability than I possessed and therefore I needed help that only God could give me. I made a true estimate of my own ability, then raised it by 50 per cent and put myself in God's hands. In this partnership, I have always received all the power I needed, and in fact have actually felt it flowing through me. Today, I can affirm that the kingdom of God is within you in the form of this power, to help achieve your goals and realise your dreams."
"I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive and allowed mistakes as a part of the learning process. I prefer a dash of daring and persistence to perfection. I have always supported learning on the part of my team members by paying vigilant attention to each of their attempts, be they successful or unsuccessful."
"I was (and am) a terrible conversationist but consider myself a good communicator."
"To succeed in your mission, you must have single-minded devotion to your goal. Individuals like myself are often called 'workaholics'. I question this term because that implies a pathological condition or an illness. If I do what I desire more than anything else in the world and which makes me happy, such work can never be an aberration."
"Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women."
"Climbing to the top demands strength, whether to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career."
"Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success."
"I have used the word 'flow' at many places without really elaborating its meaning. What is this flow? And what are these joys? I could call them moments of magic. I see an anology between these moments and the high that you experience when you play badminton or go jogging. Flow is a sensation we experience when we act with total involvement. During flow, action follows action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention on the part of the worker. There is no hurry, there are no distracting demands on one's attention. The past and the future disappear. So does the distinction between self and the activity."
"To me, the level of responsibility is measured by one's ability to confront the decision-making process without any delay or distraction."
"To live only for some unknown future is superficial. It is like climbing a mountain to reach the peak without experiencing its sides. The sides of the mountain sustain life, not the peak. This is where things grow, experience gained, and technologies are mastered. The importance of peak lies only in the fact that it defines the sides. So I went on towards the top, but always experiencing the sides. I had a long way to go but I was in no hurry. I went in little steps—just one step after another—but each step towards the top."
"Happiness, satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices. There are forces in life working for you and against you. One must distinguish the beneficial forces from the malevolent ones and choose correctly between them."
"Perhaps the main motive behind my isolation was my desire to escape from the demands of relationships, which I consider very difficult in comparison to making rockets. All I desired was to be true to my way of life, to uphold the science of rocketry in my country and to retire with a clean conscience."
"It has been my personal experience that the true flavour, the real fun, the continuous excitement of work lie in the process of doing it rather than in having it over and done with."
"A person with belief never grovels before anyone, whining and whimpering that it's all too much, that he lacks support, that he is being treated unfairly. Instead, such a person tackes problems head on and then affirms, 'As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.'"
"I never used any outside influence to advance my career. All I had was the inner urge to seek more within myself. The key to my motivation has always been to look at how far I had still to go rather than how far I had come."
"This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins."
"Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended."
"I will not be presumptuous enough to say that my life can be a role model for anybody; but some poor child living in an obscure place in an underprivileged social setting may find a little solace in the way my destiny has been shaped. It could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hopelessness."
"Are you aware of your inner signals? Do you trust them? Do you have the focus of control over your life in your own hands? Take this from me, the more decisions you can make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilise you, the better your life will be, the better your society will become. The entire nation will benefit from having strong, inner-directed people as their leaders."
"Life is a difficult game. You can win it only by retaining your birthright to be a person. And to retain this right, you will have to be willing to take the social or external risks involved in ignoring pressures to do things the way others say they should be done."
"Dream is not that which you see while sleeping; it is something that does not let you sleep."
"Source: *Wings of Fire: An Autobiography*, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam"
"If we are not free, no one will respect us."
"We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!"
"We have not invaded anyone. We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them."
"This will be the greatest legacy that we can proudly leave behind for our next generation, let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow."
"No religion has mandated killing others as a requirement for its sustenance or promotion."
"My school was a happy place. All of us who started our schooling there completed our studies till the eighth standard. I don't remember even a single person dropping out. These days, when i visit schools, both big and small, all across the country, i tell them that true quality does not come from a great building or great facilities or great advertisements. It happens when education is imparted with love by great teachers. You can get more quotes here A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Quotes"
"He [Kalam] was not only a great scientist, educationist and statesman, but also above all a real gentleman. Over the years, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with him on many occasions, and always admired his down-to-earth simplicity and humility. I used to enjoy our discussions on a wide range of subjects of common interest, but mainly concerned with science, spirituality and education."
"We are deeply shocked at the sad demise of former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, one of the most famous sons of India and a great scientific mind of his time. He was highly respected in Bangladesh as well. His invaluable contribution to India's rise in the sphere of science and technology would be remembered forever by all. He was a source of inspiration to the young generation of South Asia, someone who gave wings to their dreams."
"I came to realize that exaggerated concern about what others are doing can be foolish. It can paralyze effort, and stifle a good idea. One finds that in the history of science almost every problem has been worked out by someone else. This should not discourage anyone from pursuing his own path."
"Everyone knows it takes a woman nine months to have a baby. But you Americans think if you get nine women pregnant, you can have a baby in a month."
"A scientist studies what is, whereas an engineer creates what never was."
"Планета есть колыбель разума, но нельзя вечно жить в колыбели"
"Человечество не останется вечно на земле, но в погоне за светом и пространством сначала робко проникнет за пределы атмосферы, а затем завоюет себе все околосолнечное пространство"
"All the Universe is full of the life of perfect creatures."
"The blue distance, the mysterious Heavens, the example of birds and insects flying everywhere —are always beckoning Humanity to rise into the air."
"Нет бога-творца, но есть космос, производящий солнца, планеты и живых существ. Нет всемогущего бога, но есть вселенная, которая распоряжается судьбой всех небесных тел и их жителей. Нет сынов божьих, но есть зрелые и потому разумные и совершенные сыны космоса. Нет личных богов, но есть избранные правители: планет, солнечных систем, звёздных групп, млечных путей, эфирных островов и всего космоса. Нет Христа, но есть гениальный человек, великий учитель человечества."
"Ничего нет, кроме атомов и их сочетаний. Нет атома, который периодически не принимал бы участия в жизни"
"Ничего не признаю, кроме материи. В физике, химии и биологии я вижу одну механику. Весь космос только бесконечный и сложный механизм. Сложность его так велика, что граничит с произволом, неожиданностью и случайностью, она дает иллюзию свободной воли сознательных существ."
"Мир отчаянно несовершенен. Коли бы четвертая часть человеческих работников была поглощена новыми мыслями и изобретениями и сидела бы на шее остальных, то человечество все же чрезмерно бы выиграло благодаря непрерывному потоку изобретений и интеллектуальных трудов, исходящих из этой оравы стремящихся ввысь."
"Tolstoy was an advocate of non-resistance only because he was protected from people’s impudence by his innumerable friends. One man can stand for non-resistance, because those who stand for resistance will protect him. You will not be able to do without resistance advocates."
"Этика космоса, т.е. ее сознательных существ состоит в том, чтобы не было нигде никаких страданий: ни для совершенных, ни для других недозрелых или начинающих своё развитие животных. Это есть выражение чистейшего себялюбия (эгоизма). Ведь если во вселенной не будет мук и неприятностей, то ни один ее атом не попадёт в несовершенный страдальческий или преступный организм."
"The history of technology will record that for the first time a machine of human construction, a five-and-a-half-ton missile, covered a distance of a hundred and twenty miles with a lateral deflection of only two and a half miles from the target. Your names, my friends and colleagues, are associated with this achievement. We did it with automatic control. From the artilleryman's point of view, the creation of the rocket as a weapon solves the problem of the weight of heavy guns. We are the first to have given a rocket built on the principles of aircraft construction a speed of thirty-three hundred miles per hour by means of rocket propulsion. Acceleration throughout the period of propulsion was no more than five times that of gravity, perfectly normal for maneuvering of aircraft. We have thus proved that it is quite possible to build piloted missiles or aircraft to fly at supersonic speed, given the right form and suitable propulsion. Our automatically controlled and stabilized rocket has reached heights never touched by any man-made machine. Since the tilt was not carried to completion our rocket today reached a height of nearly sixty miles. We have thus broken the world altitude record of twenty-five miles previously held by the shell fired from the now almost legendary Paris Gun. The following points may be deemed of decisive significance in the history of technology: we have invaded space with our rocket and for the first time--mark this well--have used space as a bridge between two points on the earth; we have proved rocket propulsion practicable for space travel. To land, sea, and air may now be added infinite empty space as an area of future intercontinental traffic, thereby acquiring political importance. This third day of October, 1942, is the first of a new era in transportation, that of space travel. . . . So long as the war lasts, our most urgent task can only be the rapid perfection of the rocket as a weapon. The development of possibilities we cannot yet envisage will be a peacetime task. Then the first thing will be to find a safe means of landing after the journey through space..."
"On August 8, 1944, when Himmler appointed SS General Kammler Commissioner General for the A-4 program, it looked as though the struggle for control had come to an end. I felt like a man who has devoted years of toil and affection to making a superb violin, a masterpiece which needs only tuning, and who then has to look on helplessly while the instrument is grabbed by a tough, unmusical woodman and scraped with a jagged lump of wood."
"All flight is based upon producing air pressure, all flight energy consists in overcoming air pressure."
"I, too, have made it a lifelong task of mine to add a cultural element to my work, which should result in uniting countries and reconciling their people. Our experience of today's civilisation suffers from the fact that it only happens on the surface of the earth. We have invented barricades between our countries, custom regulations and constraints and complicated traffic laws and these are only possible because we are not in control of the 'kingdom of the air', and not as 'free as a bird'. Numerous technicians in every state are doing their utmost to achieve the dream of free, unlimited flight and it is precisely here where changes can be made which would have a radical effect on our whole way of life. The borders between countries would lose their significance, because they could not be closed off from each other. Linguistic differences would disappear, as human mobility increased. National defence would cease to devour the best resources of nations as it would become impossible in itself. And the necessity of resolving disagreements among nations in some other way than by bloody battles would, in its turn, lead us to eternal peace. We are getting closer to this goal. When we will reach it, I do not know."
"Artificial flight may be defined as that form of aviation in which a man flies at will in any direction by means of an apparatus attached to his body, the use of which requires personal skill. Artificial flight by a single individual is the proper beginning for all species of artificial flight, as the necessary conditions can most easily be fulfilled when man flies individually."
"The increasing size of the apparatus makes the construction more difficult in securing lightness in the machine; therefore the building of small apparatus is to be recommended."
"The difficulty of rising into the air increases rapidly with the size of the apparatus. The uplifting of a single person, therefore, is more easily attained than that of a large flying machine loaded with several persons."
"Gradual development of flight should begin with the simplest apparatus and movements, and without time complication of dynamic means."
"The sailing flight of birds is the only form of flight which is carried on for some length of time without the expenditure of power."
"The contrivances which are necessary to counteract the wind effects can only be understood by actual practice in the wind."
"The supporting powers of time air and of the wind depend on the shape of the surfaces used, and the best forms can only be evolved by free flight through the air."
"The maintenance of equilibrium in forward flight is a matter of practice, and can only be learned by repeated personal experiment."
"Experience alone can teach us the best forms of construction for sailing apparatus in order that they may be of sufficient strength, very light, and most easily managed."
"By practice and experience a man can (if the wind be of the right strength) imitate the complete sailing flight of birds by availing himself of the slight upward trend of some winds, by performing circling sweeps, and by allowing the air to carry him."
"Actual practice in individual flight presents the best prospects for developing our capacity until it leads to perfected free flight."
"To design a flying machine is nothing. To build one is something. But to fly is everything."
"Particular honour belongs to those who believed in the possibility of mechanical flight when all the world was against them; not the visionaries because they hoped for it merely, but those who by sheer force of intellect perceived the means by which it could be accomplished and directed their experiments along the right path. … The name of Lilienthal is now among the most honoured, but curiously his own countrymen were the last to recognize the value of his work."
"Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century, Otto Lilienthal was easily the most important. … It is true that attempts at gliding had been made hundreds of years before him, and that in the nineteenth century, Cayley, Spencer, Wenham, Mouillard, and many others were reported to have made feeble attempts to glide, but their failures were so complete that nothing of value resulted."
"Differential equations won't help you much in the design of aeroplanes — not yet, anyhow."
"He was one of that great class of Englishmen who love their wives and trust them unquestioningly with their money and their honour, but are apt to hedge a little over their motor-cars."
"It has been said that an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound; if that be so, we were certainly engineers."
"People believe what they want to believe."
"Environment has its effect on everybody, and for a time it had a numbing effect on him, preventing him from thinking clearly."
"His agitation was subsiding; already he was becoming aware that he had not got it in him to make these men believe that what he said was true. He had had so much of this in the past; he was accustomed to being right and being disbelieved on vital issues. It was what happened to him; other people could put across their convictions and win credence, but he had never been able to do that. Now it was happening again."
"Airline stewardesses are not chosen for their repellent qualities, and Miss Corder was a very charming girl."
"For many years the actress had been out of touch with the hard realities of life. All her working life had been spent in the facile world of honky-tonk, of synthetic emotion and of phoney glamour. Now she was getting a glimpse into a new world, a world of hard, stark facts, a world in which things had to be exactly right or people would be killed. She was beginning to perceive that little insignificant men like Mr Honey were the brains behind that world."
"Personal unpleasantness always upset his work; he could not think clearly if his mind was full of hard things that had been said about him, and he liked thinking clearly. Rows frightened him; he would go to considerable lengths to avoid them."
"She recognised in Mr Honey a man of moods, capable of deep depression; all geniuses, she had read, were men like that."
"She said, "When you've seen all the new places you've got no more new places to see. And anyway, one new place is just like another new place. . . . I used to like meeting new people every trip - and I still do. But those things, meeting new people, seeing new places, they aren't everything. And while you go on in that sort of life you can't have any real friends or any real home. Because you're never there . . .""
"They sat by the lake for a couple of hours, talking, finding out about each other."
"A wiser man than I once said that an unusual man is apt to look unusual. In my department we seek for original thinkers, for the untiring brain that pursues its object by day and by night. If the untiring brain refuses to leave its quest to attend to such matters as the neat arrangement of collar and tie or to removing food stains from its waistcoat, I do not greatly complain."
"You can't go through life sitting on the fence. You've got to make decisions, and sometimes you're pretty sure to make them wrong."
"If you're going to make your life in a new country you should go before you're twenty-five. After that you start to get associations, little grooves and anchors, that make it difficult to change."
"Whatever the little man showed him or explained, the designer did nothing but grunt. This was one of his more offensive techniques; he would stand in silence listening to a halting explanation and then grunt, a grunt expressing an ill-tempered scepticism or plain disbelief."
"Success did not thrill him in the least. He regarded a success merely as a convenient platform from which to plan a further advance."
"She did not understand what all that meant, but it was evidently something very near his heart, and so she said, "How splendid!""
"He was like a little boy let loose in a toy shop, uncertain which of the attractive treasures to pick up first."
"He was a dark-haired, fresh-faced boy of twenty-one or twenty-two, who adopted the pose that everything was a joke and nothing really mattered."
"All good designers are difficult men or they could not be good designers; I think everybody at the table was more or less aware of that. We set ourselves to mollify the great man, and I say that with sincerity. A great man he was, a great designer, and a superlative engineer. But not an easy man to deal with. No."
"Twenty years from now, when space travel is likely to become mundane like airline travel today, we don't want to be buying travel tickets on other people's space vehicles."
"If you want to move mountains, you just go move mountains. If you don't have a big enough shovel, you get some friends to help you. If you have the enthusiasm to charge ahead, you can do all sorts of things. Some things you can't do. You can't invent a perpetual motion machine. You've got to select your targets. But people can do so much more than they realize."
"Humanity faces the most complex task of its history so far. Stated in a solution-oriented way, it is necessary gradually to reorganize this planet at two levels. One must deal with the competing necessities of biosphere and mankind with all their environmental and climatic consequences. On the other level, it is necessary to resolve the demands of competing nations and worlds within mankind's hierarchy of socioeconomic developmental levels and the "Christmas tree" of sociopolitical, ideological, and military consequences."
"The economic function of space industrialization is to generate jobs on Earth, not in space."
"If God wanted man to become a spacefaring species, he would have given man a moon."
"For the most part, these are not new lessons, but lessons learned in different circumstances and surroundings. The fact that they are not new is of course a lesson in itself — we must continually strive to benefit from past experiences and structure our management so that past related experience can be brought to bear on current problems."
"Another lesson comes to mind and that is the need for continued hard review of design requirements. In retrospect, the requirement that led to the provision of a meteoroid shield was questionable. The shield was required in order to meet the arbitrary numerical design goal with the limited environmental knowledge then existing. Certainly with the benefit of hindsight, however, the shield was not necessary."
"It is important to plan for maximum utilization of contingent capability."
"It's the saddest moment of my life."
"I do not plan to come back. I have no reason to come back.. I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up the nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness."
"The celebrated physicist and mathematician A.M. Ampere coined the word cybernetique to mean the science of civil government (Part II of "Essai sur la philosophic des sciences", 1845, Paris). Ampere's grandiose scheme of political sciences has not, and perhaps never will, come to fruition. In the meantime, conflict between governments with the use of force greatly accelerated the development of another branch of science, the science of control and guidance of mechanical and electrical systems. It is thus perhaps ironical that Ampere's word should be borrowed by N. Wiener to name this new science, so important to modern warfare. The "cybernetics" of Wiener ("Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the animal and the Machine," John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1948) is the science of organization of mechanical and electrical components for stability and purposeful actions. A distinguishing feature of this new science is the total absence of considerations of energy, heat, and efficiency, which are so important in other natural sciences. In fact, the primary concern of cybernetics is on the qualitative aspects of the interrelations among the various components of a system and the synthetic behavior of the complete mechanism."
"The purpose of "Engineering Cybernetics" is then to study those parts of the broad science of cybernetics which have direct engineering applications in designing controlled or guided systems. It certainly includes such topics usually treated in books on servomechanisms. But a wider range of topics is only one difference between engineering cybernetics and servomechanisms engineering. A deeper - and thus more important - difference lies in the fact that engineering cybernetics is an engineering science, while servomechanisms engineering is an engineering practice."
"An engineering science aims to organize the design principles used in engineering practice into a discipline and thus to exhibit the similarities between different areas of engineering practice and to emphasize the power of fundamental concepts. In short, an engineering science is predominated by theoretical analysis and very often uses the tool of advanced mathematics."
"It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
"That the government permitted this genius, this scientific genius, to be sent to Communist China to pick his brains is one of the tragedies of this century."
"In 1948, the MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener gave a widely read, albeit completely nonmathematical, account of cybernetics. A more mathematical treatment of the elements of engineering cybernetics was presented by H.S. Tsien in 1954, driven by problems related to control of missiles. Together, these works and others of that time form much of the intellectual basis for modern work in robotics and control."
"Qian Xuesen... didn't like being called the father of China's guided-missile program: he felt that the title didn't give credit to his fellow researchers. Indeed, while the Chinese-born, U.S.-educated rocket scientist was technically brilliant, he also realized that legions of bright thinkers can do far more than one genius ever could."
"Surprisingly, when I met Modi, he did not utter a single word about [R. B.] Sreekumar. He asked me why my case is getting prolonged for so long. He said, "I understand that it has been more than 19 years." I told him that it was because of the games played by various political parties that it was still going on. I told him that it was a false case foisted by both the coalition fronts (the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front) in Kerala, as was established by the CBI. Neither coalition wanted to admit the error in their judgment, as it was a matter of prestige for both."
"I was not able to fight my way through, as they were both involved in it. I told Modi what the CBI had found [that the charges were false], and what the Supreme Court's ruling was [not guilty on all counts]. The CBI had asked the state government to take action against the police officers [responsible for malicious allegations], but they sat on it without divulging what they were doing about it. When the Kerala government wanted to go ahead with the case even after that, the court quashed it with heavy strictures. I also told him about the compensation that I have demanded from the state and Union governments."
"I came out of the room full of admiration for Modi. Somebody from the media asked me later, 'Why did you meet a chief minister from Gujarat?' I asked him, 'Why not? Kerala has had five chief ministers—K. Karunakaran, A. K. Antony, E. K. Nayanar, V. Achuthanadan[,] and Oommen Chandy—since the case broke out, but not even one chief minister had the courtesy to talk to me.' But somebody from Gujarat showed an interest in meeting me and hearing my story. I felt great about it. If he had any political motive in meeting me, he would have done so in the public glare. But instead, he met me quietly at 9:30 pm, and he issued no press statement about the meeting."
"I was not an admirer of Modi. But after meeting him, I have developed an admiration for him because I felt, 'Here's a person who is concerned about a matter of national importance.'"
"The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God."
"Being on the moon had a profound spiritual impact upon my life. Before I entered space with the Apollo 15 mission in July of 1971, I was a lukewarm Christian, to say the least! I was even a silent Christian, but I feel the Lord sent me to the moon so I could return to the earth and share his Son, Jesus Christ. The entire space achievement is put in proper perspective when one realizes that God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon. I believe that God walked on the earth 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. I have totally yielded my life to the Lord’s service to tell people everywhere about the life-changing message of Christ."
"I felt the power of God as I'd never felt it before."
"Godspeed, John Glenn."
"I volunteered for a number of reasons. One of these, quite frankly, was that I thought this was a chance for immortality. Pioneering in space was something I would willingly give my life for."
"People are the most important things in this life. Treat them as something precious because that is exactly what they are. Just like our beautiful Planet, we are all insignificant compared to the vastness of the Universe. We are all essentially equal. We are not alone and isolated: when you hurt someone, you hurt yourself; when you help someone, you help yourself."
"What someone says or writes about me doesn't change the way I am; it only changes my opinion about that person."
"Our true motivation isn't sustained only by titles and material results of a campaign. Our actual reward is not to have "that" car, or to reach "that" specific post. In reality, we seek emotional satisfaction: to feel pleasure and happiness!"
"I believe in future generations; I believe in education, in the elimination of all that is worthless in our culture. We must leave only the good things. I don't need to explain this in detail. Every Brazilian knows which way of thinking and which negative attitudes comprise the root of the behavior that prevents our progress, with order, in a more accelerated rhythm."
"...“We need to let go of this sardonic dog sentiment and believe that we have remarkable Brazilians, as Dumont was.”"
"The billionaire boom is not a sign of a thriving economy but a symptom of a failing economic system. The people who make our clothes, assemble our phones and grow our food are being exploited to ensure a steady supply of cheap goods, and swell the profits of corporations and billionaire investors."
"It’s hard to find a political or business leader who doesn’t say they are worried about inequality. It’s even harder to find one who is doing something about it. Many are actively making things worse by slashing taxes and scrapping ."
"People are ready for change. They want to see workers paid a ; they want corporations and the to pay more tax; they want women workers to enjoy the same rights as men; they want a limit on the power and the wealth which sits in the hands of so few. They want action."
"As the Executive Director of UNAIDS, I lead the work of the United Nations to tackle AIDS. I’m also someone who has lost family members to AIDS. This is personal. Both my own family experience and our collective experience at the United Nations have highlighted the same key lesson: the struggle to beat AIDS is inseparable from the struggle for women’s rights and from the struggle against all forms of discrimination. AIDS can be beaten, but it will only be beaten if we take on the social and economic injustices that perpetuate it and spur more scientific innovations to address the real needs of women and girls and people living with and vulnerable to HIV."
"Worldwide, AIDS remains the biggest killer of women aged 15–49 years. To end AIDS by 2030, we must end gender-based violence, inequality and insecurity and we must ensure that women and girls have equal access to education, health and employment. We need to transform our societies so that no one is second class and everyone’s human rights are respected. AIDS cannot be beaten while marginalized communities, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, people who inject drugs and sex workers, live in fear of the state or of socially sanctioned violence and abuse. Beating AIDS depends on tackling all forms of discrimination. I want to thank all the brave and determined social justice movements who are the true leaders in this work. I salute you."
"Feminism, human rights and zero discrimination are values deeply rooted across the world: they express our humanity, our recognition that I am because you are. And they are central to the struggle to beat AIDS. Let us beat AIDS. It can be done."
"Those are the jobs we've been told about, that globalization is bringing jobs. The quality of the jobs matter. It matters. These are not jobs of dignity. In many countries, workers no longer have a voice. They are not allowed to unionize, they are not allowed to negotiate for salaries. So we're talking about jobs, but jobs that bring dignity. We're talking about health care. The World Bank has told us that 3.4 billion people who earn $5.50 a day are on the verge, are just a medical bill away from sinking into poverty. They don't have health care. They are just a crop failure away from sinking back into poverty. They don't have crop insurance. So don't tell me about low levels of unemployment. You are counting the wrong things. You're not counting dignity of people. You're counting exploited people."
"When the world’s richest 1% own as much as the poorest 50%, we have a problem."
"Hope is the possibility of always having something to achieve."
"If I had money, I would enjoy flying to Mars... This was the dream of the first cosmonauts. I wish I could realize it! I am ready to fly without coming back."
"One cannot deny the great role women have played in the world community. My flight was yet another impetus to continue this female contribution."
"We believed each of us was worthy of being chosen... There is a bond, a comradeship, that never goes away. (about the five women who competed for the 1963 space mission)... Americans, Asians, everyone who has seen it (the view of the Earth from space) says the same thing, how unbelievably beautiful the Earth is and how very important it is to look after it. Our planet suffers from human activity, from fires, from war; we have to preserve it... When you are up there, you are homesick for Earth as your cradle. When you get back, you just want to get down and hug it... People shouldn’t waste money on wars..."
"I think it’s tremendously important to meet people, to establish a connection and tell people about space... It can increase trust, and that is something that is so badly needed, today... An awful lot depends on leaders... Putin took over a country that was on the brink of disintegration; he rebuilt it, and gave us hope again. People trust him... You only have to see how he is received, how people respond to him. He’s a splendid person."
"A Bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human space flight cannot develop any further without active participation of women... If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can't they fly in space?"
"I propose either to remove the restrictions on the presidential term, or to write in one of the articles of the bill the provision that after the updated Constitution enters into force, the incumbent president, like any other citizen, has the right to be elected to the post of head of state...Why build artificial structures, everything must be provided for honestly and openly... We either need to remove the restrictions on the number of presidential terms in the Constitution, or (if the situation demands it, and most importantly, if people want it) to lay down in the law the option for the incumbent president to be re-elected already in accordance with the updated Constitution (...) I was asked [to make this proposal] not by political circles, but by ordinary people."
"The story of the peasant’s daughter who became a household name thanks to communism’s achievements made her a role model for young Soviet women. Her photograph smiling from a space suit became an icon. President Vladimir Putin, who invited Tereshkova to his residence near Moscow to mark her birthday, said her flight remained an inspiration for the resurgent Russia of today. “Your flight was, and will remain, a matter of pride for the Soviet people, for the Russian people,” he told Tereshkova who sported the gold star of the Hero of the Soviet Union on her black suit. Tereshkova all but disappeared from public life after the Soviet Union collapsed and now heads an obscure international cooperation association under the auspices of the foreign ministry and takes part in private projects helping orphans. “I want you to know I will serve the country to the end,” she told Putin."
"While in space, Ms Tereshkova spoke directly with Khrushchev, reporting that "all systems are working perfectly" and that she felt "excellent". He replied: "Valentina, I am very happy and proud that a girl from the Soviet Union is the first woman to fly into space and to operate such cutting-edge equipment". Ms Tereshkova became the first woman to go into space on 16 June 1963. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth in a trip that lasted almost three days. Her call signal was "Seagull", and she shouted this joyful message as her Vostok-6 Spacecraft blasted off: "Hey sky, take off your hat, I'm on my way!" It was at the height of the space race between the US and the Soviet Union."
"Tereshkova logged more than 70 hours in space and made 48 orbits of Earth. Soviet and European TV viewers saw her smiling face and her logbook floating in front of her. They did not realize that the flight almost turned into tragedy, a fact that was classified for about 40 years... An error in the spacecraft's automatic navigation software caused the ship to move away from Earth... Tereshkova noticed this and Soviet scientists quickly developed a new landing algorithm. Tereshkova landed safely but received a bruise on her face. She landed in the Altay region near today's Kazakhstan-Mongolia-China border. Villagers helped Tereshkova out of her spacesuit and asked her to join them for dinner. She accepted, and was later reprimanded for violating the rules and not undergoing medical tests first... However, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union... received the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star Medal... became a spokesperson for the Soviet Union and while fulfilling this role, she received the United Nations Gold Medal of Peace."
"Many of the women on the squad described Valentina Tereshkova as a good friend. “She always advocated for our interests in front of the bosses. For example, in the beginning of the program we lived as if we were behind the barbed wire. We lived near Moscow but only Muscovites were allowed to leave the training camp to see their families,” Zhanna Yorkina recalled. “Me and Tereshkova got bored and asked for permission to go to Moscow. ‘What for? What do you want to buy?’ they said. Once, Valentina Tereshkova lost control and blurted out the following: ‘Knickers! That’s what we want to buy!’ This is how we got permission.”"
"As launch day drew closer, some of the women suspected they would not be chosen. Valentina Tereshkova was garnering a lot of attention, and it was soon officially confirmed that she would fly... someone more extroverted was needed, since they would be dealing with worldwide publicity following the flight... a working-class woman would be a better representation of Soviet ideals than one from a white-collar family."
"On 16th June 1963, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova broke boundaries and set multiple records which, to this day, have not been broken...At the time of her birth both parents worked on farmland. Her father, Vladimir Tereshkov, was a tractor driver. He was killed during the first six months of WWII, before Valentina had reached her third birthday...Valentina left school aged 16 and began her first job in a tyre factory. Soon after she moved her focus and worked at a textile mill. During this time she continued her education via correspondence courses with Moscow’s Light Industry Technical School. She graduated in 1960. Even with such a demanding schedule, she still managed to indulge in her fascination with skydiving. Her dedication to this pass time was so intense that, after completing her first jump aged just 22, she became competitive in the sport. She managed to keep this hobby a secret from her family during her early days in this arena."
"Tereshkova was the first woman in space. She completed 48 orbits of the Earth, she spent 2 days 22 hrs 50 mins in space during her first and only orbital mission, she is – to date – the only woman to fly solo beyond our atmosphere and she is still the youngest woman ever to enter space, aged just 26 years."
"Soon we will have people on Mars, and we truly will be multi-planetary. And the young boy or the young girl who will be going to Mars could be in this audience or listening today. I have wanted to work at JPL on these missions since I was 14 years old and I am privileged to be a part of it. And this is a remarkable time in the space program, and we are all in this journey together. So the next time you think you don't have enough time in your day, just remember, it's all a matter of your Earthly perspective."
"Why congratulate me? We are miners, no one knows our names, we work underground."
"The further conquest of space will make it possible, for example, to create systems of satellites making daily revolutions around our planet at an altitude of some 40,000 kilometers, and to assure universal communications and the relaying of radio and television transmissions. There is no such thing as an unsolvable problem."
"The time will come when a spacecraft carrying human beings will leave the earth and set out on a voyage to distant planets to remote worlds. Today this may seem only an enticing fantasy, but such in fact is not the case. The launching of the first two Soviet Sputniks has already thrown a sturdy bridge from the earth into space, and the way to the stars is open."
"Anyone can build complicated. Our actions are determined by simplicity."
"Today the dreams of the best sons of mankind have come true. The assault on space has begun."
"{{Translated quote"
"He was one of the very best."
"The Soviets deliberately created their own geographic confusion, trying to conceal the location of their manned space center. By 1957, CIA spy planes had spotted the pad near the Central Asian railway station of Tyura-Tam, which CIA analysts proceeded to misspell forever after as "Tyuratam." In 1961, the Soviets, in a vain attempt at ex post facto geographic disinformation, named their launch site "Baikonur," which was itself a clumsy transliteration of Baikonyr, a small mining village hundreds of miles from the space base. When Kazakhstan became autonomous in 1991 and took nominal sovereignty over the spaceport, its leaders began referring to it as "Baikonyr." Perhaps someday the Russians can drop the now- admitted fraud once and for all and name the space base for the man who founded it, Sergei Korolev; then all the world's maps could carry a single -- and honorable -- designation."
"He was very positive; it was inside him. He tried to attract different people of all levels beginning from the worker. In his work place there was everybody. I worked in the competitive design bureau, but I met with him many times. I have nothing against him, but I had this feeling, which was bringing me to him, because he was the person who could make everybody work for him, and not really pressing them for it."
"Keep stretching beyond the comfort zone."
"I wish I had been told to worry less, that what I needed more than anything else was a curious mind."
"If I hadn’t pursued excellence, none of this would have happened"
"When you don’t have anyone in high places to speak your name or open doors for you, your best bet is to take a chance on excellence, God, and a bit of luck"
"He would spend time looking up scholarships and master’s programmes abroad. I had never thought of leaving the country, let alone furthering my studies"
"I didn’t think I stood a chance, but I applied anyway, and to my surprise, I was one of only two Kenyans selected in 2015"
"I was intrigued, but I was also terrified. Could I go from an undergraduate degree in Kenya to pursuing a PhD in engineering at one of the world's top universities? I barely had any research experience"
"His words stuck with me: 'It will be a steep learning curve, but you'll manage.' That was all the encouragement I needed to take the leap,"
"In China, we have a city called Shangri-La in Yunnan Province and a small town also called Shangri-La in Sichuan Province. Shangri-La is synonymous with a utopia of purity, beauty, harmony and serenity."
"Today, as we look around, we see sluggish global economic recovery, resurging cold war mentality, rising regional conflicts, and security threats emerging one after another. Our world is far from tranquil, and people across the countries long for peace, development and cooperation."
"The Asia Pacific is a shared home where regional countries live and thrive. A sustained prosperity and stability in our region hinges on sound security and development environment. This is something that has not come easily. And regional countries have done so much to have made it possible. On the other hand, we should not ignore that the Asia Pacific faces unprecedented security challenges."
"First, mutual respect should prevail over bullying and hegemony. Facts have proven that where there is hegemonism and power politics, there will be instability kills, and even worse. We, in China, believe that the key for countries to live in harmony is mutual respect and treating each other as equals. We are strongly opposed to imposing one's own will on others, placing one's own interests above those of others, and pursuing one's own security at the expense of others."
"Some country has willfully interfered in other country's internal affairs and matter in the affairs of other countries and frequently resorted to unilateral sanctions, incursion with force. It has incited colour revolutions and proxy wars in different regions create a chaos and turbulence and just walked away leaving a mess behind. We must never allow such things to happen again in the Asia Pacific."
"The essence of mutual respect lies in respecting each other's strategic autonomy and the right to development. On the contrary, hegemonism essentially deprives others of their strategic autonomy and the right to development."
"Second, fairness and justice should transcend the law of the jungle. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community. International affairs should be handled by all countries through consultation rather than be dictated by one or a few countries."
"It is so called rules-based international order. It never tells you what the rules are and who made these rules. It practices exceptionalism and double standards and only serves the interests and follows the rules of a small number of countries. A just an equitable environment for development meets the shared interests of Asia Pacific countries. Anyone who attempts to fleece the flock or prey on the weak will surely be opposed by countries in the region."
"Third, eliminating conflicts and confrontation through mutual trust and consultation. It is natural for countries to disagree with each other. But there are two approaches to addressing differences. One is exacerbating tension and adding fuel to flames, while the other is seeking consensus and promoting reconciliation and negotiations. It is quite clear which one is the right choice."
"As a matter of fact, regional countries have every wisdom and capability to settle their differences and disputes. At the end of the day, only enhancing dialogue and communication and promoting solidarity and cooperation will ensure stability in our region."
"Fourth, preventing block confrontation with openness and inclusiveness. The cold war mentality is now resurging and greatly increases security risks of block confrontation in the Asia Pacific. Some big power continue to promote its so-called Indo-Pacific strategy. China holds that no strategy should be based on ideological ground and aim to build exclusive military alliances against imagined threats, as this could easily lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"The true design of pushing for NATO-like military alliances in the Asia Pacific is to hold countries in the region hostage and play up conflict and confrontation that attempts will only plan to the region into a whirlpool of division, disputes and conflicts. History has proven that block politics, division and confrontation have never delivered genuine security. They can only escalate tensions and destabilise the region."
"Today, what Asia Pacific needs are big pies of open and inclusive cooperation, not smoke leaks[?] that are self-serving and exclusive. We must never forget the catastrophes inflict by the two World Wars and the Cold War. And we must never allow such tragedies to happen again."
"China is committed to promoting world peace and development with concrete actions. The Communist Party of China, uniting and leading the Chinese people in concerted efforts of several generations, has successfully blazed a Chinese path to modernisation. One distinctive feature of the Chinese path is peaceful development. This is an invaluable guide for our way forward that we have developed through years of hardships and dedicated efforts."
"The achievements China has made come from the hard work, diligence and creativity of more than one billion Chinese people; not from aggression, expansion, and pondering. Wherever China goes, we focus on building capacity, seeking cooperation and promoting development. This is widely recognised by the international community. As a Chinese saying goes, adjust course should be pursued for common good. China is ready to join hands with all countries on the path towards modernisation, and create new opportunities for global stability and prosperity."
"Second, Chinese modernisation has contributed significantly to safeguarding world peace. Peaceful development is enshrined in China's constitution. We firmly pursue a national defense policy that is defensive in the first place and have endeavoured to safeguard world and regional security."
"I once read a line written by Chinese soldier on his mission. And here I quote, “If people ask why go into such dangerous places to keep peace, please tell them someone must step forward to safeguard the fundamentals of human civilization.” This is a simple wish of a Chinese soldier. It is also a solemn commitment made by the Chinese military to the world."
"Third, Chinese modernisation has played its role in improving global governance. Facing growing deficits in global governance, China holds high the banner of multilateralism and endeavours to follow a vision of global governance featuring extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits. We take seriously the legitimate security concerns of other countries and are committed to advancing global security governance."
"China upholds justice and equity and commits itself to bridging differences and enhancing solidarity. On the Ukraine issue, China has taken an objective and impartial stance based on the merits of the issue."
"We will address security issues in emerging areas and explore the formulation of rules for space, cyber and biological security. In short, we will work towards a widely accepted, fair and equitable system of security rules."
"Ladies and gentlemen, friends, throughout its 5,000-year history, the Chinese nation has always valued peace and harmony. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China more than 70 years ago, we never started a conflict, occupied an inch of foreign land, or raged a proxy war. China has one of the best peace record among major countries. China stays committed to the path of peaceful development. But we will never hesitate to defend our legitimate rights and interests, let alone sacrificing the nation's core interests."
"As the lyrics of a well-known Chinese song goes, when friends visit us, we welcome them with fine wine. When jackals or wolves come, we will face them with shotguns. This illustrates that the Chinese people's character of being friendly and kind but not intimidated by strong power."
"On the Taiwan question, it is the core of China's core interests. Taiwan is an internal affair of China, which is a primary and indisputable fact. Taiwan is China's Taiwan, and how to resolve the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese to decide. It groups no interference from foreign forces. As matter of fact, over 180 countries entered into diplomatic ties with China with the political commitment of abiding by the One China principle."
"Let me make it clear once again, the more rampant the separatist activities for Taiwan independence are, the more resolute outcome the measures will be and all foreign interference will end up in failure. China's reunification is an overriding historical trend and an unstoppable course. The tolerant question arose as a result of weakness and chaos in our nation, and it will be resolved as national rejuvenation becomes a reality."
"China must be and will be reunified. It is the aspiration of our people and in line with the trend of our times. We will strive for the prospects of peaceful reunification with at-most sincerity and greatest efforts, but we make no promise to renounce the use of force. If anyone dares to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese military will not hesitate for a second. We will fear no opponents and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, regardless of any cost."
"It is undeniable that a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US will be an unbearable disaster for the world. China believes that a major country should behave like one. Instead of provoking block confrontation for self-interests, it should bear in mind the interests of all, resolve differences through exchanges and cooperation and meet the aspirations of countries in the world. China and the US should not forget the history and need to draw lessons from history. China and the US have different systems and are different in many other ways. However, this should not keep the two sides from seeking common ground and common interests to grow bilateral ties and deepen cooperation."
"History has proven time and again that both China and the United States will benefit from cooperation and lose from confrontation. China seeks to develop a new type of major country relationship with the United States. As for the US side, it needs to act with sincerity, match its words with deeds and take concrete actions together with China to stabilise the relations and prevent further deterioration."
"China and the US should properly handle differences, brave difficulties and find the right way to get along. The past few years have seen China-US relations at record low since forming diplomatic ties. I believe you all know the cause to such a difficult situation. The world is big enough for countries including China and the US to grow together. The right way for China and the US to get alone is following the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation."
"Our dreams are linked. People of different countries are pursuing their own Shangri-La, just like the Chinese people. Long and arduous as our journey may be, we will get to the destination as long as we take concrete steps. Let us work hand in hand to build an Asia Pacific community of shared future, promote stability, prosperity and development in our region, and make the Asia Pacific a better place."
"I have received many engineering awards, but I hope I will also be remembered as an advocate for the rights of women and children."
"War effort is a man staying and working an extra hour, or two or five hours a day. It is a woman cutting short her noon hour to get back to finish the job; it is someone taking home his problems to solve them after dinner; it is someone coming back in the evening to finish an assignment. War effort is something, which is as microscopic in the unit as the individual, but as mighty in the sum total as an army."
"Come abitante temporanea di un avamposto umano nello spazio, condividerò la prospettiva orbitale e condurrò virtualmente nello spazio tutti quelli che vorranno prendere parte a questo viaggio. translation: As a temporary inhabitant of a human outpost in space, I will share the orbital perspective and virtually lead into space all those who want to take part in this journey."
"Decidere di fare l'astronauta non è come decidere di fare l'avvocato o l'architetto. Si devono verificare una serie di condizioni e ci vuole anche una buona dose di fortuna. translation: Deciding to be an astronaut is not like deciding to be a lawyer or an architect. A series of conditions must be met and a good dose of luck is also needed."
"La Stazione spaziale è un esempio davvero luminoso di come le differenze internazionali passino assolutamente in secondo piano quando si ha un obiettivo grande, una passione comune. translation: The is a truly shining example of how international differences are completely secondary when you have a big goal, a common passion."
"... I believe that space exploration is part of building the future ..."
"I would like to show you one of my favourite meals up here, which is a chicken with s, , and s. And I would like to try and put the ingredients together for you. See how it works in space."
"Yes, I got my Ph.D. in aerospace at UT Arlington in 2015. But before that, I was there for undergraduate and got my undergraduate degree in 2010."
"There’s no question. And what the Honors College did for me, was it positioned me to have a solid foundation in my course work and my academics, particularly the first few classes that I took that were Honors classes, really helped me – I would say, that they definitely helped me transition to the aerospace engineering program versus coming fresh out of high school and Nigeria because the classes were intimate and provided an opportunity for me to learn with other high-achieving students."
"So, when I got to grad school, it was a little different. My involvement with the Honors College was morphed. I was not really an Honors student which is more focused on undergrads."
"It was a lot of responsibility for sure. But it came with a lot of growth as well. Growth and independence of some sort."
"I was that person that would ask companies – hey, can your company help with this or that?"
"Now, generally, you do have the expectations you set for yourself. To what extent does imposter syndrome manifests with you and it varies for different people. How I handle it is I try to be super, overly diligent with everything, I have to know everything. I have to start from scratch; I have to understand it. And it’s very imperative; it’s important for me that my achievements are attributed to my capabilities and not simply because I am a Woman of Color in this field. It has to be my technical expertise that has brought me here or taken me there."
"I didn’t have negative experiences. But again, you stand out, and it’s just how you stand out that matters. But you will stand out regardless when you’re in the minority: when you’re female, when you’re black, or when you’re young."
"The reason I started to share, the reason I created my professional Instagram and Twitter pages, is because I’ve heard a million and one times, that my story’s not just for me. People have told me multiple times – Wendy, it’s not about you, it’s bigger than you."
"Everybody just wants to know, what’s your story, how did you get to NASA? How did a 26-year-old black girl get a Ph.D. in something like aerospace engineering and get to work at NASA?"
"I can’t even imagine how I would have struggled during the first year transitioning to being an aerospace engineering freshman at UT Arlington, but again arduous is relative."
"But instead, I basically kind of took a pay cut for higher learning. But with that pay cut and all of these fellowships, I was able to keep my head above water and focus on learning. Focus on my Ph.D. program."
"I failed early and I failed often. This is one of the secrets of success, Failure is the best mentor, because humans tend to move on if they do not fail, as if there is nothing more to explore."
"I graduated high school with a GPA of 2.3. I was not getting into a top university with this score and I was forced to rethink and reexamine my choices."
"I had to create my own ideas, and those were created by success as well as misfires. I am not afraid of change, rather embrace it. Change means growth."
"I feel that STEM is the great democratizer. I credit my engineering degree to my ability to embrace analytical thinking as a skill and apply it to problems and turn that into an enterprise that has made me who I am today."
"Things like that do not happen to those who are perfect, but rather to those who are persistent, confident, and move with purpose."
"Although my concept of balance in life might not align with what people perceive – as I think it varies according to the stage of life – nevertheless I believe it is very important for one to reinforce positive ideas each day, and this is what I do every morning for an hour early in the morning."
"So yes, inspiration goes both ways, and mentorship of girls and women really matters; it turns them into successful people."
"I know what it feels to be hungry, broke, or scared. I knew these feelings earlier on; I learned to build on my feelings to create a space of growth and success."
"A jet engine is one of the most fascinating things in the world."
"It rotates at thousands of revolutions per minute. It goes to 3,000 degrees. The fan blades are almost as big as you or I. Yet, the reliability and performance is amazing."
"If you are a civil engineer or a mechanical engineer and you want to have something that won't break, you just make it bigger. You add more material. In aerospace, you cannot do that. It won't fly."