The Inspiration of Aviation Quotes

Most lovers of aviation have strong feelings about flying. Talk of airplanes can trigger memories of joy, fear, satisfaction, humiliation, sorrow, frustration, anxiety, anticipation, and passion. Sometimes those emotions are difficult to put into words. There are also countless truisms associated with an aviator’s world—lessons imposed by nature, aerodynamics, rules, aircraft limitations, and human factors.

Over my 50-plus years of flying, and even before that as an aviation-obsessed youngster, I have enjoyed many gifted aviation authors. A few had a truly special gift for putting the experience of flying into beautiful, artistic, or clarifying words. Over the years, I found myself writing down some of the more eloquent passages to reflect on when seeking guidance, inspiration, or simply confirmation of the emotions shared by those who fly.

There have been books, articles, and columns devoted to aviation quotes, so this compilation is nothing new. But as I recently reviewed my collection, I couldn’t help but think about what those words might offer pilots today. Flying airplanes is serious business, and perhaps a little reflection on the wisdom, philosophy, and cautions of those who came before us can remind us of that—and make us better pilots.

My favorite aviation authors are Ernest K. Gann, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Len Morgan, and Richard Bach. For me, Gann’s Fate Is the Hunter is my aviation bible. I first read it in high school, and Gann’s beautiful descriptions of his flying career in the 1930s and ’40s helped establish my philosophical view of a career as an airline pilot.

Saint-Exupéry gave me a romantic view of professional flying through his beautiful descriptions of a pilot’s thoughts and experiences. Len Morgan became a literary hero with his forthright writing style, describing the realities of the airline pilot’s working world and the many subjects that affect aviation. Richard Bach touched me with his gifted descriptions of a pilot’s appreciation for aviation and the psychology of the aviator.

Each had a distinctive style, but all shared a similar love for the world of flying airplanes. Whether a pilot flies for a living, lives to fly, or simply enjoys the ability to operate an aircraft, their words provide ageless wisdom, guidance, and beautiful descriptions of the privilege of flight.

Gann’s Way With Words

Gann’s way with words in Fate Is the Hunter and The High and the Mighty made me covet his style and talent:

“We are being paid to avoid hazard, but there are still many unexplored crevasses in our reservoir of knowledge…. We are obliged to recognize our possible epitaph – His End Was Abrupt.”

“Anyone can do the job when things are going right. In this business we play for keeps.”

“And sloppy pilots were the hyenas of the profession. They had been known to kill themselves and their passengers.”

“The flight deck – a hard place, composed of metal and instruments and controls which tolerated only the most logical thinking.”

“For no matter how many times they had repeated this exact routine, a chant that through the years of repetition was engraved on their memories – they knew better than to trust their memories. This was not an adventure, and it was not a time for lightness. It was the opening of business in which the penalties for failure could be more final than bankruptcy. As professionals they recognized that, regardless of mechanical perfection, there would always be penalties for movement. Their training and experience had all been aimed toward eliminating these hazards or overcome them quickly if they should occur.”

“It became important to think as well as fly…Good line pilots held an alternate in their minds for every eventuality. If this did not work out, then they would do that. Expecting the worst, they skipped one emotion when trouble appeared and thus moved, without pausing, past disappointment and to action.”

Len Morgan

These pearls are from various writings of Len Morgan and from his book, Reflections of a Pilot:

“Good habits separated the men from the boys, and often the quick from the dead.”

“A good pilot is a realist.”

“There can be no unreasonable compromise with safety.”

“A pilot can get into trouble while doing precisely what he was taught to do.”

“The relative importance of the several aspects of flight varies rapidly; even wildly, the trick being to immediately evaluate a given situation and concentrate on the problem while not losing sight of the total picture……keep the big picture in mind.”

“I hope real trouble seeks him out, the stuff of which nightmares are made, frights that shake him to the core. Then, when he takes the left seat, he will fly strictly by the numbers – but know when it’s time to put the book away.”

Saint-Exupéry

Saint-Exupéry wrote so beautifully of the pilot’s world in Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight in a form best described as poetry:

“Below the sea of clouds lies eternity.”

“There is a particular flavor about the tiny cabin in which, still only half awake, you stow your thermos flask and odd parts and overnight bag; in the fuel tanks heavy with power; and best of all, forward, in the magical instruments set like jewels in their panel and glimmering like a constellation in the dark of night. The mineral glow of the artificial horizon, these stethoscopes designed to take the heartbeat of the heavens, are things a pilot loves. The cabin of a plane is a world unto itself, and to a pilot it is home.”

“Man’s happiness lies not in freedom but in his acceptance of a duty.”

“The earth teaches us more about ourselves than do all the books. Because it resists us. Man discovers himself when he measures himself against the obstacle. But to do so he needs a tool, a saw, or a plow. The farmer in his labor, slowly coaxes out a few of nature’s secrets, and the truths he unearths are universal. In the same way, the airplane, tool of the airlines, involves man in all the old problems.”

“It is not with metal that the pilot is in contact. Contrary to the vulgar illusion, it is thanks to the metal, and by virtue of it, that the pilot rediscovers nature….The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them.”

“The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront….the black dragons and the crowded crest of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the stars.”

Other Voices

I’ve collected quotes for years and have always appreciated how just the turn of a phrase or wording of a sentence can convey a great deal of wisdom and stimulate thought with easy application to the skill of flying airplanes:

“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
— Pascal

“Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than calculated risk.”
— Wilbur Wright

“The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.”
— Anonymous

“If you’re faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.”
— Bob Hoover

“Merely to copy the actions of your instructor is not enough. You must develop your knowledge of flying and your reactions until piloting is an instinctive series of movements.”
— Dick Merrill

“I’m challenged to do a little bit better than yesterday, each time I fly.”
— Bob Hoover

“Circumstances in the atmosphere combine to kill the wishful or distracted.”
— William Langwiesche

“The cockpit was my office. It was a place where I experienced many emotions and learned many lessons. It was a place of work, but also a keeper of dreams. It was a place of deadly serious encounters, yet there I discovered much about life. I learned about joy and sorrow, pride and humility, fear and overcoming fear. I saw much from that office that most people will never see. At times it terrified me, yet I could always feel at home there. It was my place at that time in space, and the jet was mine for those moments. Though it was a place where I could quickly die, the cockpit was a place where I truly lived.”
— Brian Shul

“This thing we call luck is merely professionalism and attention to detail, it’s your awareness of everything that’s going on around you, It’s how well you know and understand your airplane and your own limitations. Luck is the sum total of your abilities as an aviator. If you think your luck is running low, you’d better get busy and make some more. Work harder, pay more attention. Study your flight manuals more. Do better preflights.”
— Stephen Coonts

“The sky does not misunderstand. The sky does not judge. The sky, very simply is.”
— Richard Bach

“Harmony comes gradually to a pilot and his plane. The wing does not so much want to fly true as to tug at the hands that guide it; the ship would rather hunt the wind than lay her nose to the horizon far ahead. She has a derelict quality in her character; she toys with freedom and hints at liberation but yields her own desires gently.”
— Beryl Markham

“The highest art form of all is a human being in control of himself and his airplane in flight, urging the spirit of a machine to match his own.”
— Richard Bach

“Strive for perfection on every flight. It is an unachievable goal, depending on your experience level, criteria, and your honesty with self-critique, but you will become a better pilot with your endeavor, your passengers will enjoy a smoother, safer flight, your airplane will thank you, and aviation’s reputation will benefit from your noble efforts.”
— Rob Haynes

I have returned to my list of quotes over the years and, just as in my rereading of the books of Gann, Morgan, Bach, and Saint-Exupéry, I have had my love, devotion, and respect for flying renewed in that review.

And while the responsibility a pilot shares each time they coax an aircraft aloft is to be taken very seriously, as Admiral Horatio Nelson stated during the Battle of Copenhagen, “….I would not be elsewhere for thousands.”

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Rob Haynes

Rob Haynes grew up and learned to fly in Amarillo, Texas, establishing his career with charter, corporate and bank mail flying. This was followed by airline experience at American, Nigeria Airways, and for the last 36 years at Southwest Airlines, where he has served as a Check Airman, Chief Pilot, and Director of Flight Standards. He is currently enjoying flying the line as a Captain. He has owned and operated a flight school and charter business, owning several airplanes along the way. He enjoys sharing the romance and nostalgia of aviation with his pilot-wife Kathy, daughter of aviation author Len Morgan.

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