Quotes from John Glenn

I was hooked on aviation, made model airplanes, and never thought I would be able to fly myself. It cost too much. But then World War II came along and changed all that.

I think we're a long ways from really putting colonies of people out there who would live their whole lives out there in space. I don't see that happening for quite some time.

I can't say I've ever had a dream about space or that I ponder it all the time.

I still love to fly and I'll never get over that.

You can't relive your life.

The most important thing we can do is inspire young minds and to advance the kind of science, math and technology education that will help youngsters take us to the next phase of space travel.

You should run your life not by the calendar but how you feel, and what you're interests are and ambitions.

I wouldn't oppose a women's astronaut training program; I just see no requirement for it.

One of the first things I learned in the Marine Corps is that any military mission has to be defined as precisely as you can possibly define it, and then you size the force and equipment force to accomplish that mission without fail.

I say let's not gamble with American jobs and America's future.

When the new becomes commonplace, people become accustomed to it. That's a tribute to our sense of adventure.

Old folks have dreams and ambitions too, like everybody else. Don't sit on a couch someplace.

We had 83 different space research projects on my last space flight in '98, and they covered the whole gamut.

Just to continue a space program because it's a space program? No, I don't think we have an obligation for that.

The time will come when we permit more people in space.

I think even in bad times it's good to keep some money going into research. And that's the purpose of the whole space program. It's not just exploration and going to see how far we can go out into space and keep people alive and bring them back, although exploration certainly has its place.

Probably, had World War II not come along and intervened, I would have tried to be a doctor. My son's a doctor, and I still take some medical journals to this day.

In orbit, you're keyed up and aware of everything going on, every little noise, anything that may have special meaning because of where you are.

I spent 23 years in the military. I think I'm in a good position to make those judgments on what is necessary in the military and what is not necessary, without buying a lot of things that would not really add to our security.

To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.

The space station is the most unique laboratory we've ever built. The reason we have it is to do research on materials, people, medical matters, pharmaceuticals - the possibilities are nearly endless.

You know, old folks can have dreams, too, as well as young folks, and then work toward them. And to have a dream like this come true for me is just a terrific experience.

In the old days, the Soviets were using space as a selling point for communism.

The conquest of space is not merely a technological project of interest to a handful of select scientists and specialists, valuable though that research and information may be.