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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index E > Amelia Earhart Quotes

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Amelia Earhart
(24 Jul 1897 - 2 Jul 1937)

American aviator , one of the world's most celebrated aviators, who was the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean.


Science Quotes by Amelia Earhart (11 quotes)

Amelia Earhart in flying jacket and goggles, upper body. Original b/w colorized with help from palette.fm
“I think I’d like to learn to fly”, I told the family casually … “Not a bad idea”, said my father just as casually. “When do you start?”
— Amelia Earhart
But a few days later, he said, “You really weren’t serious, were you?” In The Fun of It (1932), 25.
Science quotes on:  |  Casual (9)  |  Fly (153)  |  Learn (672)

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.
— Amelia Earhart
As attributed, without source, on 'The Official Amelia Earhart' website (www.ameliaearhart.com). The first three words are also seen attributed to Aesop and to Aristotle, but Webmaster will not believe those until there is an original source seen to back them up.
Science quotes on:  |  Adventure (69)  |  Worthwhile (18)

Courage is the price that
Life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.
— Amelia Earhart
From poem 'Courage' (1927), opening lines, included in magazine article by Marion Perkins, 'Who Is Amelia Earhart?', Survey (1 Jul 1928), 60. Quoted as epigraph, and cited in Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart (1989), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Bitter (30)  |  Courage (82)  |  Fear (212)  |  Hear (144)  |  Height (33)  |  Joy (117)  |  Know (1538)  |  Life (1870)  |  Little (717)  |  Loneliness (6)  |  Mountain (202)  |  Peace (116)  |  Price (57)  |  Release (31)  |  Soul (235)  |  Sound (187)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Wing (79)

How can Life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull grey ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul’s dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the restless day,
And count it fair.
— Amelia Earhart
From poem 'Courage' (1927), second half, included in magazine article by Marion Perkins, 'Who Is Amelia Earhart?', Survey (1 Jul 1928), 60. Quoted as epigraph, and cited in Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart (1989), ix.
Science quotes on:  |  Boon (7)  |  Choice (114)  |  Compensate (3)  |  Count (107)  |  Courage (82)  |  Dare (55)  |  Dominion (11)  |  Dull (58)  |  Fair (16)  |  Grant (76)  |  Grey (10)  |  Hate (68)  |  Life (1870)  |  Living (492)  |  Pay (45)  |  Restless (13)  |  Soul (235)  |  Time (1911)  |  Ugliness (3)

I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any [medieval] code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.
— Amelia Earhart
From note to her husband-to-be, George P. Putnam, on the morning of their wedding (7 Feb 1931). As quoted in Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings (1989), 166. Earhart’s misspelling as “midaevil” in the original note has been corrected to “medieval” above.
Science quotes on:  |  Bind (26)  |  Bound (120)  |  Code (31)  |  Consider (428)  |  Medieval (12)  |  Myself (211)  |  Understand (648)  |  Want (504)  |  Wedding (7)

In soloing—as in other activities—it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it. Almost every beginner hops off with a whoop of joy, though he is likely to end his flight with something akin to the D.T.’s.
— Amelia Earhart
In 20 Hrs., 40 Min. (1928), 55.
Science quotes on:  |  Activity (218)  |  Beginner (11)  |  Easier (53)  |  Easy (213)  |  End (603)  |  Finish (62)  |  Flight (101)  |  Joy (117)  |  Other (2233)  |  Solo (2)  |  Something (718)  |  Start (237)  |  Trembling (4)

Looking back now, however, I can see certain threads in what I did that were fully as important in leading me to aviation as being mechanical perhaps was. There is the thread of my father’s being a railroad man and the many trips we had together—by which I discovered the fascination of new people and new places. There is the thread of liking all kinds of sports and games and of not being afraid to try those that some of my elders in those days looked upon as being only for boys. There is the thread of liking to experiment—perhaps this thread is the same as the one I have just mentioned—and of the something inside me that has always liked to try new things. There they all are, weaving in and out and here and there through the years before aviation and I got together.
— Amelia Earhart
In The Fun of It (1932), 3-4.
Science quotes on:  |  Autobiography (58)  |  Experiment (736)  |  Sports (3)  |  Travel (125)

Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—and occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action. Some such consideration was a contributing reason for my wanting to do what I so much wanted to do.
— Amelia Earhart
In Amelia Earhart and George Palmer Putnam (ed.), Last Flight (1937), 74.
Science quotes on:  |  Action (342)  |  Already (226)  |  Consideration (143)  |  Do (1905)  |  Encouraging (12)  |  Establishing (7)  |  Greater (288)  |  Independence (37)  |  Other (2233)  |  Person (366)  |  Reason (766)  |  Themselves (433)  |  Thought (995)  |  Want (504)  |  Women (9)

Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.
— Amelia Earhart
In 20 Hrs., 40 Min. (1928), 310.
Science quotes on:  |  Age (509)  |  Commencement (14)  |  Existence (481)  |  Flying (74)  |  Happy (108)  |  Interesting (153)  |  Life (1870)  |  Period (200)

Perhaps the greatest joy of flying is the magnificence of the view. … Colors stand out and the shades of the earth, unseen from below, form an endless magic carpet. If anyone really wishes to see the seasons’ changes, he should fly. Autumn turns its most flaming leaves upward and spring hints its coming first for birds and aviators.
— Amelia Earhart
In The Fun of It (1932), 46.
Science quotes on:  |  Autumn (11)  |  Aviator (2)  |  Flying (74)  |  Joy (117)  |  Magnificence (14)  |  Spring (140)  |  View (496)

The most effective way to do it is to do it.
— Amelia Earhart
Although this quote appears in circulation attributed to Earhart, it is usually without a source cited, for example in Karen Weekes, Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Brilliant Remarks (2007), 10. However, Webmaster has not yet found a primary print source. (If you know one, please contact the webmaster). The quote is also found attributed to Toni Cade Bambara (1939-1995), for example, from 'In Search of the Mother Tongue: An Interview with Toni Cade Bambara', First World Journal (Fall 1980) quoted in Moraga and Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back, viii. Cited in Wendy Farley, Eros For The Other (1996), 148, as a reply when asked if fiction were the most effective way of 'unit[ing] our wrath, vision, our powers.' However, note that Bambara was born two years after Earhart's airplane was lost (1937).
Science quotes on:  |  Do (1905)  |  Effective (68)  |  Initiative (17)  |  Most (1728)  |  Way (1214)


See also:
  • 24 Jul - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Earhart's birth.
  • Amelia Earhart - the first woman to fly the Atlantic
  • Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last, by Mike Campbell. - book suggestion.
  • Booklist for Amelia Earhart.

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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