Bertrand Piccard

“Very often, human beings are living like on autopilot, reacting automatically with what happens. What interests me about the life of an explorer is you are in the unknown; you are out of your habits.”

“I'm learning kite surfing. It's a little surfboard you have on your feet with straps, and you have a big kite like a power glider in the air that pulls you. You don't need waves to move, and it makes a big spray of water as you go.”

“In the 21st century, I think the heroes will be the people who will improve the quality of life, fight poverty and introduce more sustainability.”

“Before achieving a dream, you need to make very little steps... People don't understand that when you want to make a big dream you have a lot of fastidious little things you have to do.”

“When I was a child, I saw my father diving to the deepest point in the ocean with the U.S. Navy.”

“I came up with idea of a solar airplane flying around the world with no fuel - that would be a beautiful message in terms of technology, the energy of the future and the environment.”

“What the history of aviation has brought in the 20th century should inspire us to be inventors and explorers ourselves in the new century.”

“My life and the life of my family has to do with exploration, with adventure. My grandfather was the first man in the stratosphere, and my father was the first to touch the deepest point in the ocean... For me, adventure and exploration is something in the blood.”

“A movie I must have seen 10 times is 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull.' It's an old movie, but still such a beautiful message. If I had only one film I could take on my computer on a desert island, I would take 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull.'”

“People put limitations on their creativity, believing they have to rely on what they know and what they have done.”