You do what you can for as long as you can, and when you finally can't, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don't give up.

I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit.

You don't concentrate on risks. You concentrate on results. No risk is too great to prevent the necessary job from getting done.

There's no such thing as a natural-born pilot.

All that I am ... I owe to the Air Force.

You concentrate on what you are doing, to do the best job you can, to stay out of a serious situation. That’s the way the X-1 was.

Most pilots learn, when they pin on their wings and go out and get in a fighter, especially, that one thing you don't do, you don't believe anything anybody tells you about an airplane.