The field was wet, the lane was wet, and the spirits of my mechanic and helper were damp.
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.
The best way to do it, is to do it!
To worry is to add another hazard.
I’m getting housemaid’s knee kneeling here gulping beauty.
Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.
I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty. That the reasons flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the aesthetic appeal of flying.
So I accept these awards on behalf of the cake bakers and all of those other women who can do some things quite as important, if not more important, than flying, as well as in the name of women flying today.
Aviation, this young modern giant, exemplifies the possible relationships of women with the creations of science.
I lay no claim to advancing scientific data other than advancing flying knowledge. I can only say that I do it because I want to.
Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done – occasionally what men have not done – thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action.
The soul’s dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay with courage to behold restless day and count it fair.
My ambition is to have this wonderful gift produce practical results for the future of commercial flying and for the women who may want to fly tomorrow’s planes.
Human crises have a way of happening at inconvenient times.
The lure of flying is the lure of beauty.
Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn’t any good reason to refer to it.
In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.
There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war.
I did for the fun of it.
There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.