Neil Armstrong | In Memoriam
On July 20, 1994, Neil Armstrong spoke at the White House in commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the moon landing
“Today we have with us a group of students, among America's best. To you we say we have only completed a beginning. We leave you much that is undone. There are great ideas undiscovered, breakthroughs available to those who can remove one of the truth’s protective layers.
There are many places to go beyond belief. Those challenges are yours – in many fields, not the least of which is space, because there lies human destiny.” – Neil Armstrong
“Everything you add to the truth subtracts from the truth.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise? Engineering, electrical and mechanical, is positive in results. There is scarcely a subject that cannot be mathematically treated and the effects calculated or the results determined beforehand from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practice of a crude idea as is being generally done is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money and time.” – Nikola Tesla
“When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
“What do I know? I'm just a farmer.” – Jack Nachamkin
“We no longer have the tolerance envelope for stupidity.” – Charles Ostman
“Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.” – Howard Aiken, IBM engineer
“The universe is not only stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.” – Albert Einstein
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke
“The distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one.” – Albert Einstein
“"Intellectual courage is at least as rare as the other kind.” – ~ Shelley Thomson
“When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society which honors the servant, but forgets about the gift.” – Albert Einstein
“A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.” – Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” – Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays, 1928
“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra