Neil Armstrong quotes

Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer, most famous for being the first person to walk on the Moon. His historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969 marked a major milestone in space exploration. He inspired generations to dream big and reach for the stars. Here are 65 of his quotes:

I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

Neil Armstrong

Pilots take no special joy in walking: pilots like flying.

Neil Armstrong

I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Neil Armstrong

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

Neil Armstrong

Research is creating new knowledge.

Neil Armstrong

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.

Neil Armstrong

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

Neil Armstrong

Space has not changed but technology has, in many cases, improved dramatically. A good example is digital technology where today's cell phones are far more powerful than the computers on the Apollo Command Module and Lunar Module that we used to navigate to the moon and operate all the spacecraft control systems.

Neil Armstrong

I am comfortable with my level of public discourse.

Neil Armstrong

The exciting part for me, as a pilot, was the landing on the moon. That was the time that we had achieved the national goal of putting Americans on the moon. The landing approach was, by far, the most difficult and challenging part of the flight. Walking on the lunar surface was very interesting, but it was something we looked on as reasonably safe and predictable. So the feeling of elation accompanied the landing rather than the walking.

Neil Armstrong

Through books you will meet poets and novelists whose creations will fire your imagination. You will meet the great thinkers who will share with you their philosophies, their concepts of the world, of humanity and of creation. You will learn about events that have shaped our history, of deeds both noble and ignoble. All of this knowledge is yours for the taking... Your library is a storehouse for mind and spirit. Use it well.

Neil Armstrong

Geologists have a saying - rocks remember.

Neil Armstrong

In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

Neil Armstrong

Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.

Neil Armstrong

We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

Neil Armstrong

I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.

Neil Armstrong

I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

Neil Armstrong

The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.

Neil Armstrong

I thought, well. when I step off it's just going to be a little step - a step from there down to there - but then I thought about all those 400,000 people who had given me the opportunity to make that step and thought it's going to be a big something for all those folks and, indeed for a lot of others that weren't even involved in the project, so it was kind of a simple correlation.

Neil Armstrong

We were involved in doing what many thought to be impossible, putting humans on Earth's moon.

Neil Armstrong

Science fiction writers thought it would be possible. H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and other authors found ways to get people to the moon. But none of those writers foresaw any possibility of the lunar explorers being able to communicate with Earth, transmit data, position information, or transmit moving pictures of what they saw back to Earth. The authors foresaw my part of the adventure, but your part was beyond their comprehension.

Neil Armstrong

There was great uncertainty about how well we would be able to walk in our cumbersome pressurized suit.

Neil Armstrong