A biography for Neil Armstronghasn’t been written yet.
“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.”
“I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.”
“The Eagle has landed.”
“In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.”
“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.”
“NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It's sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.”
“The one thing I regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time, and a lot of travel.”
“I put up my thumb and it blotted out the planet Earth.”
“Yeah, I wasn't chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn't planned by anyone.”
“I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer.”
“That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.”
“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.”
“Research is creating new knowledge.”
“Gliders, sail planes, they're wonderful flying machines. It's the closest you can come to being a bird.”
“As a boy, because I was born and raised in Ohio, about 60 miles north of Dayton, the legends of the Wrights have been in my memories as long as I can remember.”
“Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
“Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that's when something snaps up and bites you.”
“I'm substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They're sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they're hitting back and forth.”
“I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.”