Our Annual List of Favorite Flying Quotes

Who says pilots aren’t a romantic bunch? Proof is that our annual list of inspirational flying quotes is one of our most popular features of the year. Here are some of our favorites.

The feeling of flying an aircraft is often indescribable. But throughout history, some famous aviators managed to express the joy, wonder and mystery of flying in words. In celebration of fearless aviators past and present, here are some inspirational quotes on aviation, aircraft and flying.

“Gliders, sail planes, they’re wonderful flying machines. It’s the closest you can come to being a bird.”

— Neil Armstrong

“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.”

— Mary Kay Ash

“To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.”

— Lord Byron

"Or like a poet woo the Moon,
Riding an armchair for my steed,
And with a flashing pen harpoon
Terrific metaphors of speed."

— Roy Campbell

“Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”

— G. K. Chesteron

“The stars are the great Gothic churches: spires, naves, delicate flying buttresses, massive conventional buttresses, stained glass and grandeur, grandeur, grandeur.”

— John Corry

“If you can remember dreams of flying and soaring like a bird, or dancing, or singing more perfectly than you ever thought possible, you know that no second-hand accounts of such events could ever give you the thrill you felt in the dream.”

— Gayle Delaney

“Flight is the only truly new sensation than men have achieved in modern history.”

— James Dickey

“Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.”

— Amelia Earhart

“The focus and the concentration and the attention to detail that flying takes is a kind of meditation. I find it restful and engaging, and other things slip away.”

— Harrison Ford

“The good thing about flying solo is its never boring.”

— Steve Fossett

“I could have gone on flying through space forever.”

— Yuri Gagarin

“To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. To fly is everything.”

— Otto Lilienthal

“Flying is the only active profession I would ever continue with enthusiasm after the War.”

— Wilfred Owen

“There is no more exciting sport than flying, for if you lose, you die.”

— Christopher Paolini

“Every wind is fare when we are flying from misfortune.”

— Sophocles

“The time to worrying about flying is when you’re on the ground. When you’re up in the air, it’s too late. No point in worrying about it then.”

— Denzel Washington

“The fact that the great scientist believed in flying machines was the one thing that encouraged us to begin our studies.”

— Wilbur Wright

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