What everyone in the astronaut corps shares in common is not gender or ethnic background, but motivation, perseverance, and desire - the desire to participate in a voyage of discovery.

I tell students that the opportunities I had were a result of having a good educational background. Education is what allows you to stand out.

Don't be afraid to reach for the stars

It's fun to work the robotic arm in part because it's really a team effort.

Education is what allows you to stand out

Astronauts are very professional and when they're preparing for launch, they prepare for it as the most serious endeavor of our lives.

I feel very privileged. But what I really hope for young people is that they find a career they’re passionate about, something that’s challenging and worthwhile.

We are involved in technology development for, you know, missions that we hope to plan that would take us to an asteroid and eventually to Mars.

That's what we want to do here at Johnson Space Center. I think what we have always brought to NASA and brought to the country is trying to push the boundaries, trying to go to the next level.

I realized how important it was to know something about aviation, and it was something I was interested in, so I followed my brother's footsteps and obtained my pilot's license.

I'll tell you, being involved in human space flight, it is an emotional endeavor. I think it brings in the highest highs and the lowest lows.

everybody-even monsters-needed a little attention once in a while.

Life is a bubble in a lake, that glitters for an instant, bursts, and leaves not even a blur on the water; it is the leap of a minnow, which sends a tiny ripple trembling for a few inches.

Citizenship in New York is now worth no more than citizenship in Arkansas, for it is open to any applicant from the marshes of Bessarabia, and, still worse, to any applicant from Arkansas.

Being famous hasn't made my life any easier. Every minute I'm dealing with the baby-sitters is one more minute I'm not training.

...good things happen to the human spirit when it is left alone.

When kids can't afford to see it anymore maybe we'll have a whole resurgence of garage bands all over America and this New Wave thing will start to mean something on a grass roots level.

No one can expect a majority to be stirred by motives other than ignoble.

What we talked about will have to remain a secret between him and me. I spoke to him as a brother whom I have pardoned and who has my complete trust.

Look not to a woman's head for her brains, but rather to her heart.

And everyone must lose his mind, everyone must! The sooner the better! It is essential — I know it.