If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing.

I ran the astronaut school for six years, and I was the commandant and when I finished in '65, 26 of my guys went into space as NASA astronauts that I trained.

What good does it do to be afraid? It doesn't help anything. You better try and figure out what's happening and correct it.

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.

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.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

Just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.