John Glenn

“As far as trying to analyze all the attention I received, I will leave that to others.”

“I have no political affiliations and have always and do now consider myself an independent.”

“I've never let people push me around in politics.”

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

“I pray every day and think everybody should.”

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

“To me, we have never really exploited our ability in low-Earth orbit.”

“I don't know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.”

“Everywhere that Americans spread off the Eastern seaboard, heading west across this country, they put up the schoolhouse first, hired a schoolteacher, and put all the kids in school.”

“The best space movie in my view is 'Apollo 13.' That's just the way it happened.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“This is a day we have managed to avoid for a quarter of a century.”

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

“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.”

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

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

“I'm not interested in my legacy. I made up a word: 'live-acy.' I'm more interested in living.”

“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.”