Aviation is one of the most fascinating and impressive aspects of life. There are few things in life that can match the sense of wonder you feel when you soar through the sky.
It's about finding beauty in unexpected places and enjoying both the journey and the destination. Aviation is also an area immortalized in poetry for centuries, portraying the beauty and grandeur of flight. Many of these poems became aviation quotes, inspiring people to pursue their dreams.
Throughout the fascinating history of aviation, many people have shaped the industry through their words and actions. People we can learn from as pilots, flight enthusiasts and aviation fans. Some of the most inspirational aviation quotes come from some of history's most influential figures. Some world famous, others not so much.
But one thing is certain: To this day, these trailblazers and their quotes offer plenty of motivational value to help you reach your aeronautical or personal goals in 2022.
Whether you're a pilot or just someone who loves flying and aviation, these 100+ quotes will speak to your soul. So keep reading and get inspired!
The 100 best aviation quotes of all time
1. "Once you experience flight, you will walk the earth forever with your eyes turned to the sky" - Leonardo da Vinci
This may be one of the most recognizable aviation quotes out there. It was a contribution by Leonardo Da Vinci, but according to Dave English, he's still not 100% sure it's a real da Vinci quote:
“This has to be the most famous aviation quote that is not a verifiable quote. It is widely attributed to Leonardo da Vinci (including some Smithsonian and Washington Post publications), but I have never been able to find definitive information about the origin. I also spoke to some lovely people at National Geographic magazine who, as part of a long investigative process, contacted one of the world's leading authorities on Leonardo in Italy and discovered that Leonardo da Vinci did not write it."
2. "The Wright brothers have created the greatest cultural force since writing was invented" - Tom Wolfe
3. When the odds seem to be against you, remember that planes take off against the wind, not with it.” -Henry Ford
4. "The plane stays in the air because it doesn't have time to fall." - Orville Wright
5. "The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who... looked with envy at birds flying free through space... on the endless highway of air." -Wilbur Wright
6. "There are only two emotions on an airplane: boredom and terror" - Orson Welles
7. "The airplane is the closest thing to real magic" - Charles Lindbergh
8. "The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul." - Anonymous
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In your flying and racing training you will make many false landings. Don't pray you won't go, you just will. However, there is a general rule that applies to all landings:
9. "If you can pull away from a landing, it's a good landing." If you can use the plane the next day, it's a great landing.” –Chuck Yeager
10. "If you are faced with an emergency landing, fly as far away from the crash site as you can." - Bob Hoover
11. “Flying is the second best thrill after cheering; it's like graphite without a pencil.” –Georg Lukas
12. "If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." - Anonymous
13. "Routine flights don't exist" - Chesley B. Sullenberger
14. "Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you'll fly." - Anonymous
If you don't try, you'll never know what you can achieve. Do it, the least you can do is try. It crashes a few times, crashes every now and then, but gets up, grabs the controls, and flies like never before (in a good way).
15. "Any pilot who says he's never been scared on a plane is lying." -Louise Thaden
16. "The pilot who teaches himself has a fool for a pupil." - Anonymous
17. “Try to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself." - Anonymous
Do you think you weren't born to be a pilot? You could be wrong. Great pilots are made, not born:
18. "Great pilots are not born... A man may have good eyesight, sensitive hands and perfect coordination, but the end result is only shaped by constant training, lots of practice and experience."- Anonymous
19. "Don't be a braggart. Never be too proud to back down. There are old pilots and brave pilots, but no brave old pilots." - Anonymous
20. "Any landing you can get away from is a good landing." - Anonymous
21. “The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, invigorating and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? "It's the same thing angels breathe." -Mark Twain
22. "The plane has revealed to us the true face of the earth" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
23. "And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist who loves to fly." – Elrey Borge Jeppesen
24. “If you've ever encountered an emergency landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing area. If you don't like what you see, turn it off." - Anonymous
25. “There are three essential qualities in a pilot: imagination, courage and fitness. If you lack any of these things, you are worthless.” – Erroll Boyd
26. “There are three simple rules for a smooth landing. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." - Anonymous
27. "Flying is hours of boredom punctuated by a few seconds of sheer terror." - Anonymous
28. “If God wanted man to fly, he would have given us more money.” - Anonymous
29. "In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum traveling at hundreds of kilometers per hour and the soil traveling at zero kilometers per hour, the soil still has not lost." - Anonymous
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30. "Flying requires at least two of these three to stay alive: altitude, speed, or intelligence." - Anonymous
31. "If a plane is still whole, don't trick it; shoot the bastard down." - Ernest K. Gann, author and aviator
32. "You can be a pilot without a plane, but you can't fly a plane without a pilot." - Anonymous
Although this point can be argued in 2022 with the growing popularity of UAVs.
33. "It's better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here." - Anonymous
34. "Flying is the second greatest emotion known to man... Landing is the first." - Anonymous
35. "It's a shame to lose the romantic side of flying and just accept it as a conventional means of transport." - Amy Johnson
36. "The good thing about flying solo is that it never gets boring." - Steve Fossett
37. “More than anything, the feeling of flying is a perfect peace mixed with an emotion that leaves every nerve on edge. If you can imagine such a combination. —Wilbur Wright
38. “Everyone has oceans to fly if they have a heart. Is he relentless? Perhaps. But what do dreams know about limits? - Amelia Earhart
39. "You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing to add, but when you have nothing to take away" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
40. “There is no way to become a perfect pilot; It's just a matter of surviving until you get there." –Chuck Yeager
41. “Every aviator who ventures across oceans to distant lands is a potential explorer; In his chest burns the same fire that once animated the adventurers to leave for distant lands in their sailboats. –Jean Batten
42. "Sometimes you have to go really high to see how small you are." - Felix Baumgartner
43. “The Wright brothers created the greatest cultural force since writing was invented. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, uniting people, languages, ideas and values.” -Bill Gates
44. "Flying may not be completely smooth, but the fun is worth the price." - Amelia Earhart
45. "The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm and a good bowel movement. A plane landing at night is one of the few times in your life you can experience all three at once." —Admiral William Harris, USN
46. "There are no shortcuts to places worth visiting" - Beverly Pfeffer
47. "If you want to be a pilot, it's not just about flying the plane, it's about living the life." -Chesley B. Sullenberger
48. "Solo driving, like any other activity, is much easier to start than to finish." - Amelia Earhart
49. "You haven't seen a tree until you see its shadow in the sky." - Amelia Earhart
45. "If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down" - Toni Morrison
51. "The hardest thing is deciding to act, the rest is just persistence" - Amelia Earhart
52. "There's no greater thrill than being on the air and knowing you made it yourself." - Wilbur Wright
53. "Obstacles are those horrible things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford
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54. "We all live in the air, but not all of us know it" - Piña Colada
55. "Life is a journey, not a destination" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
56. "It's the journey that counts, not the destination" - T.S. Eliot
57. “Shoot the moon. Even if you fail, you will land among the stars." –Les Braun
58. "To infinity and beyond!" - Buzz Lightyear
59. "Flying is learning to hit the ground and miss" - Douglas Adams
60. "In every job that needs to be done, there's an element of fun." -Mary Poppins
61. "It's better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here." - Anonymous
62. "If you don't live on the edge, it takes up a lot of space." - Anonymous
63. “The sky is not the limit. There are footprints on the moon." - Anonymous
64. "Don't let your fear of what might happen make anything happen." - Anonymous
65. Flying the plane is more important than communicating your situation to a person on the ground who can't do anything about it. - Anonymous
66. "Flying taught me that carelessness and overconfidence are often far more dangerous than deliberate risk taking." -Wilbur Wright
67. "If you want to be a better pilot, fly with someone better than you." - Anonymous
68. "There is no such thing as a born pilot" - Genghis Khan
69. "Pilots don't particularly like to walk: pilots like to fly." -Neil Armstrong
70. "The time to worry is when there's nothing left to worry about." —Chesley B. Sullenberger
71. "You know you've got your wheels up when it takes all your strength to drive up the ramp." —Robert A. Heinlein
72. "There is no fault in the flight, only instructions for the next flight" - Anonymous
73. "Never fly in the same cabin with someone braver than you." - Anonymous
74. "Of all the things that could go wrong, we worry the most." - Anonymous
75. "The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." - Anonymous
76. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." -Eleanor Roosevelt
77. "The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the things you can't train for that kill you." –Ernst K. Gann
78. "In flight, the probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of incidence" - Neil Armstrong
79. "Never stop. Never give up. Fly to the end." - Chuck Aaron
80. "Escape is romance, not in the sense of sexual attraction, but as a life-enriching experience." - Stephen Coonts
81. "The engine is the heart of an airplane, but the pilot is its soul." -Walter Alexander Raleigh
82. "I've never known an industry that could get into people's blood the way aviation does" - Robert Six
83. "Why fly? Just. I'm not happy unless there's some space between me and the ground." ~Richard Bach
84. “Mistakes are inevitable in aviation, especially when you are still learning something new. The trick is not to make the mistake that will kill you.” ~ Estevão Conta
85. “Once you learn to fly your plane, flying is a lot less tiring than driving. You don't have to be alert every second for cats, dogs, children, traffic lights, traffic lights, women with strollers and citizens swerving at traffic lights in the middle of the block. . . . Nobody who hasn't been in the air on a glorious morning can imagine what it's like to be an outdoor pilot.” ~William T. Piper
86. “Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist invents the parachute. ~ George Bernard Shaw
87. "This is the most exciting thing you've ever done with your pants!" ~Stephen Counts"
88. "The way I see it, you can either work for a living or fly planes. I'd rather fly." ~ Len Morgan
89. “It's hard enough for anyone to set a course of action and follow it, especially given the wishes of their friends; but it is doubly difficult for an aviator to stay on the ground and wait for the right moment to take off.” ~Glenn Curtiss
90. "Never fly anything that won't wear the paint off the rudder pedals." ~Bill Harry
91. "The quality of the box doesn't matter. Success depends on the man sitting in it." ~Manfred von Richthofen
92. "Man must rise above the earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only then will he fully understand the world in which he lives." - Socrates
93. "I fly because it frees me from the tyranny of small things" - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
94. "Aviation is proof that with determination we have the ability to achieve the impossible." –Edward Rickenbacker
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95. “Pilots are a rare breed of people. They leave the ordinary surface of the Word to purify their souls in Heaven, and descend to earth only after receiving the Communion of the Infinite”. – Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra
96. "When you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. Meaning, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way, they'll grow back." - Anonymous
97. "The only mystery in life is why kamikaze pilots wore helmets." - Al McGuire
98. "You're never lost until you're lost at Mach 3" — Paul F. Crickmore
99. “You start with a bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag with experience before emptying the bag with luck.” - Anonymous
100. "A fool and his money soon fly more planes than he can control." - Anonymous
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Last updated: 5 hours ago