21 quotes
Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.
Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization.
Last Flight (1937)
There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war.
The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.
Soaring Wings : A Biography of Amelia Earhart (1939)
Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.
Last Flight (1937)
In my life I had come to realize that when things were going very well indeed it was just the time to anticipate trouble.
Last Flight (1937)
Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.
Last Flight (1937)
Courage is the price that
Life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.
I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.
How can Life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull grey ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul's dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the restless day,
And count it fair.
Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.
As I look back on the flight I think two questions have been asked me most frequently. First: Was I afraid? Secondly: What did I wear?
In soloing—as in other activities—it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it. Almost every beginner hops off with a whoop of joy, though he is likely to end his flight with something akin to the D.T.'s.
The time to worry is three months before a flight. Decide then whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying. To worry is to add another hazard. It retards reactions, makes one unfit. . . . Hamlet would have been a bad aviator. He worried too much.
The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life and the procedure. The process is its own reward.
I understood. I was a girl-a "nervous lady." I might jump out. There had to be somebody on hand to grab my ankle as I went over. It was no use to explain I had seen aeroplanes before and wasn't excitable. I was not to be permitted to go alone in the front cockpit.
The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.
Misattributed
Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do.
Disputed
Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn't be done.
Disputed She Drew Horses (2006)
Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.
Misattributed