I'm honored to be the first woman to have the opportunity to command the shuttle. I don't really think about that on a day-to-day basis because I really don't need to.

We want to explore. We're curious people. Look back over history, people have put their lives at stake to go out and explore ... We believe in what we're doing. Now it's time to go.

I don't think of myself as being a woman and having anything to prove.

The atmosphere almost looks like an eggshell on an egg, it's so thin. We know that we don't have much air - we need to protect what we have.

The vast majority of the shuttle program was a success. We learned so much about how a reusable spacecraft interacts with its environment, how it ages-and what to design next time.

My daughter just thinks that all moms fly the Space Shuttle

I have no nerves, no emotion, no pressure.

I wanted to apply to the astronaut program after the Challenger accident

Sometimes the best way to get other people to give up their egos is for you to give up yours first.

The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.

People want to be friends with someone who likes to have a good time.

My biggest asset is my combination of size and speed.

Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.

People of the world will reject your reminders, because it reminds them that this world is temporary.

The thought of today cannot be expressed in the language of yesterday.

I didn’t create poverty. This church didn’t create poverty. Poverty is not an issue, human suffering is not an issue at all, they were there before the creation of mankind.

It seems to me everything Shakespeare did was political.

The colors of the underwater rock [are] as pale and delicate as those in the wardrobe of an 18th-century marchioness.