If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. The guarantee of continuity is quality.

The biggest lesson I've learned . . . was that if you have all the fresh water you want to drink and all the food you want to eat, you ought never to complain about anything.

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

The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Selfdistrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.

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.

When I look up and see the sun shining on the patch of white clouds up in the blue, I begin to think how it would feel to be up somewhere above it winging swiftly through the clean air, watching the earth below.

The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business is to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down.