Let the moment come when nothing is left but life, and you will find that you do not hesitate over the fate of material possessions.

If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. Old families, old customs, old styles survive because they are fit to survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. Submerge the good in a flood of the new, and good will come back to join the good which the new brings with it. Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old-fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival. These will come back.

And I have yet to find one single individual who has attained conspicuous success in bringing down enemy aeroplanes who can be said to be spoiled either by his successes or by the generous congratulations of his comrades. If he were capable of being spoiled he would not have had the character to have won continuous victories, for the smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Self-distrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.

Fighting in the air is not sport. It is scientific murder.

Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.

I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I'll be damned if I'll pay them to just sit there.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.