Wright Brothers Quotes:

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

- Carl Sagan

source: Broca's Brain ch. 5 (1979)

topic: Funny, Brother, Laughter, Funny Leadership, Pale Blue Dot

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.

- Charles Kettering

topic: Motivational, Determination, Brother, Wright Brothers, Possible And Impossible

The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, languages, ideas, and values together.

- Bill Gates

topic: World Wide Web, Wright Brothers, Pilots And Flying, Airplanes And Flying

The Wright brothers' first flight was not reported in a single newspaper because every rookie reporter knew what could and couldn't be done.

- Edward R. Murrow

topic: Brother, Done, Rookies, Wright Brothers

In 1903 the Wright brothers invented airplanes, because in 1902 they took a road trip across the country with their family.

- Bill Engvall

topic: Country, Brother, Airplane, Wright Brothers, Road Trip

If the Wright brothers hadn't put their lives on the line, we would not be flying around the world these days. So we need pioneers.

- Felix Baumgartner

topic: Brother, Flying, Pioneers, Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers committed themselves to do what no one else had ever done before. They took time to do their homework. They were humble and smart enough to appreciate and learn about the work of others who went before. And they tackled the problem line upon line, precept upon precept.

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

topic: Brother, Smart, Humble, Wright Brothers

There's a historical milestone in the fact that our Apollo 11 landing on the moon took place a mere 66 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight.

- Buzz Aldrin

source: Buzz Aldrin, Leonard David (2013). “Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration”, p.31, National Geographic Books

topic: Brother, Moon, Years, Wright Brothers, Apollo 11

When counting on learning from innovation, there are great successes but also failures. The Wright Brothers invented the aircraft and started an amazing process of innovation, where we now have planes that carry 500 passengers. Along the way there were some silly looking vehicles that crashed early on.

- Sheldon Whitehouse

topic: Brother, Silly, Innovation, Wright Brothers

The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.

- Warren Buffett

source: Warren Buffett (2009). “Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha”, p.110, John Wiley & Sons

topic: Brother, Thinking, Growth, Successors, Wright Brothers

If the Wright brother were alive today Wilbur would have to fire Orville to reduce costs.

- Herb Kelleher

topic: Brother, Fire, Live For Today, Air Travel, Wright Brothers

It's when things are going just right that you'd better be suspicious. There you are, fat as can be. The whole world is yours and you're the answer to the Wright brothers' prayers. You say to yourself, nothing can go wrong ... all my trespasses are forgiven. Best you not believe it.

- Ernest K. Gann

topic: Brother, Prayer, Believe, World Is Yours, Wright Brothers

America, in the eyes of the world, typifies above all else this quality of initiative. The greatest successes are nearly all the fruit of initiative. Why do we hold in such high esteem the achievements of the Wright brothers? Because they were illustrious examples of initiative and tenacity. And ideas are born of initiative, the children of men and women of initiative. Advancement is applied initiative. Don't imitate. Initiate.

- B. C. Forbes

topic: Brother, Children, Eye, Children Of Men, Wright Brothers

I love visiting the Air and Space Museum. It always blows my mind how far we've come from the Wright Brothers in 1906 to modern space travel.

- Ryan Merchant

topic: Brother, Blow, Museums, Wright Brothers, How Far We've Come

Picasso had nicknamed Georges Braque "Wilbur," thereby becoming "Orville" in their Wright Brothers-like ambition to get painting off the ground of conventional representation.

- Peter Schjeldahl

source: "In With the New" by Peter Schjeldahl, www.newyorker.com. October 27, 2014.

topic: Brother, Ambition, Becoming, Wright Brothers, Conventional

Successful technologies often begin as hobbies. Jacques Cousteau invented scuba diving because he enjoyed exploring caves. The Wright brothers invented flying as a relief from the monotony of their normal business of selling and repairing bicycles.

- Freeman Dyson

source: Freeman Dyson (1999). “Imagined World”, p.17, Universities Press

topic: Brother, Successful, Technology, Scuba, Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers' first flight was shorter than a Boeing 747's wing span. We've just begun with heart transplants.

- C. Walton Lillehei

topic: Brother, Heart, Wings, Transplants, Wright Brothers

In honoring the Wright Brothers, it is customary and proper to recognize their contribution to scientific progress. But I believe it is equally important to emphasize the qualities in their pioneering life and the character in man that such a life produced. The Wright Brothers balanced sucess with modesty, science with simplicity. At Kitty Hawk their intellects and senses worked in mutual support. They represented man in balance, and from that balance came wings to lift a world.

- Charles Lindbergh

topic: Brother, Believe, Character, Pioneering, Wright Brothers

There was a wonderful little short four-year time period when marvelous things happened. It started in 1908, when the Wright brothers flew in Paris, and everybody said, 'Ooh, hey, I can do that.' There's only a few people that have flown in early 1908. In four years, 39 countries had hundreds of airplanes, thousands of pilots.

- Burt Rutan

topic: Country, Brother, Airplane, Marvelous Things, Wright Brothers

There was a flight from Cleveland to New York City with just two people on board. There hasn't been two people on an airplane since the Wright brothers.

- David Letterman

topic: Brother, New York, Airplane, Wright Brothers

We are ever on the threshold of new journeys and new discoveries. Can you imagine the excitement of the Wright brothers on the morning of that first flight? The anticipation of Jonas Salk as he analyzed the data that demonstrated a way to prevent polio?

- Joseph B. Wirthlin

topic: Morning, Brother, Journey, Polio, Wright Brothers

They say that most airline seats on planes today are meant for 170-pound passengers. The last time the average American weighed 170 pounds, the Wright Brothers were flying the plane.

- Jay Leno

topic: Brother, Average, Flying, Wright Brothers

If the F.A.A. was around when the Wright Brothers were testing their aircraft, they would never have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk.

- Larry Walters

topic: Brother, Able, Hawks, Wright Brothers, Aircraft

America is an enormous country with enormous resources. The basic American spirit creates the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford and Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. Once we start rolling, we're pretty formidable. And the incompetence of the government is so massive that even a moderately good executive could regain much ground pretty rapidly. Donald Trump is a very good executive.

- Newt Gingrich

source: Source: www.spiegel.de

topic: Country, Brother, Government, Wright Brothers

The Wright brothers didn't contemplate the staying on the ground of things. Alexander Graham Bell didn't contemplate the noncommunication of things. Thomas Edison didn't contemplate the darkness of things. In order to float an idea into your reality, you must be willing to do a somersault into the unconceivable and land on your feet, contemplating what you want instead of what you don't have.

- Wayne Dyer

source: Wayne W. Dyer (2009). “The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way: Easyread Large Edition”, p.51, ReadHowYouWant.com

topic: Brother, Communication, Reality, Wright Brothers, Graham Bell

I was attacked the other night for being grandiose. I would just want you to note: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers standing at Kitty Hawk were grandiose. John F. Kennedy was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am grandiose and that Americans are instinctively grandiose.

- Newt Gingrich

topic: Brother, Night, Want, Kitties, Grandiose

Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong and the final decisions are made in silent rooms. Tell him to be different from other people if it comes natural and easy being different. Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives. Let him seek deep for where he is a born natural. Then he may understand Shakespeare and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov, Michael Faraday and free imaginations Bringing changes into a world resenting change. He will be lonely enough to have time for the work he knows as his own.

- Carl Sandburg

topic: Lonely, Strong, Brother, Pavlov, Pasteur

I would rather people understand that there is a very, very fortunate American who was given the opportunity, and was in the right place at the right time to have the moment of a lifetime. My mother was born - her name was Marianne Moon. And she was born in 1903, the year that the Wright Brothers first flew.

- Buzz Aldrin

source: "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit, www.reddit.com. July 08, 2014.

topic: Mother, Brother, Moon, Wright Brothers

Greek myths are heroic, noble and tragic; but the American Dream is heroic, comical, and uplifting. Americans are a people in whom overweening ambition is rewarded, not punished. The Wright Brothers did not have their wings melt when they flew too high. Perhaps their wings were more soundly built than those of Icarus.

- John C. Wright

topic: Uplifting, Dream, Brother, Comical, Wright Brothers