Frank Borman Quotations

Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit.

Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.

It's a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing rather like clouds and clouds of pumice stone. And it certainly does not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work.

Exploration really is the essence of the human spirit, and to pause, to falter, to turn our back on the quest for knowledge, is to perish.

Gemini was a tough go. It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.

Gemini was a tough go, ... It was smaller than the front seat of a Volkswagen bug. It made Apollo seem like a super-duper, plush touring bus.

We have to earn our Wings every day.

There has always been a certain romanticism associated with the airline business. We must avoid its perpetuation at Eastern at all costs.

There is just no way that I can understand in God's green earth that an airline could undertake with its normal procedures the operation of the Space Shuttle. . . . You don't put parachutes on airliners because the margin of safety is built into the machine. The 727 airplanes we fly are proven vehicles with levels of safety and redundancy built in. The shuttle is a hand-made piece of experimental gear.

Astronauts: space activists.

[The Moon] was a sobering sight, but it didn't have the impact on me, at least, as the view of the Earth did.

I think the one overwhelming emotion that we had was when we saw the earth rising in the distance over the lunar landscape . . . . It makes us realize that we all do exist on one small globe. For from 230,000 miles away it really is a small planet.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth.

The more we learn about the wonders of our universe, the more clearly we are going to perceive the hand of God.

A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.

The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me -- a small disk, 240,000 miles away. . . . Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence, don't show from that distance.

Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace....

When you're finally up on the moon, looking back at the earth, all these differences and nationalistic traits are pretty well going to blend and you're going to get a concept that maybe this is really one world and why the hell can't we learn to live together like decent people?