Quotes by Alan Shepard

“I think the sense of family and family achievement, plus the discipline which I received there from that one-room school were really very helpful in what I did later on.”

“I realized up there that our planet is not infinite. It's fragile. That may not be obvious to a lot of folks, and it's tough that people are fighting each other here on Earth instead of trying to g...”

“It is a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

“Whether you are an astronomer or a life scientist, geophysicist, or a pilot, you've got to be there because you believe you are good in your field, and you can contribute, not because you are going...”

“It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

“They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one.”

“You have to be there not for the fame and glory and recognition and being a page in a history book, but you have to be there because you believe your talent and ability can be applied effectively t...”

“I'd like to say I was smart enough to finish six grades in five years, but I think perhaps the teacher was just glad to get rid of me.”

“I think all of us certainly believed the statistics which said that probably 88% chance of mission success and maybe 96% chance of survival. And we were willing to take those odds.”

“We worked with the engineers in the design and construction and testing phases in those various areas, then we would get back together at the end of the week and brief each other as to what had gon...”

“You know, being a test pilot isn't always the healthiest business in the world.”

“And I think that still is true of this business - which is basically research and development - that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and ...”

“The pilot looked at his cues of attitude and speed and orientation and so on and responded as he would from the same cues in an airplane, but there was no way it flew the same. The simulators had s...”

“There's no question that all the generations got excited about the first flights, with Kennedy's inspiration to go to the moon, leaving the planet for the first time, and fortunately coming back.”

“I know you're all saying I can go to the moon but I can't find Pasadena.”

“There were similarities between these two incidents. The similarity was too much success … over-confidence and complacency, quite frankly.”

“I guess those of us who have been with NASA … kind of understand the tremendous excitement and thrills and celebrations and national pride that went with the Apollo program is just something you're...”

“We need a continuing presence in space.”

“The first one I hit pretty flush with one hand - went about 200 yards. And the second one I shanked, and it rolled into a crater about 40 yards away.”

“I think about the personal accomplishment, but there's more of a sense of the grand achievement by all the people who could put this man on the moon.”