Eddie Rickenbacker: The biggest lesson I've learned . . . was that if...

Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared.

Eddie Rickenbacker

motivational inspirational life

I can give you a six-word formula for success: "Think things through - then follow through."

Eddie Rickenbacker

inspiration leadership thinking

Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible.

Eddie Rickenbacker

aviation airplane impossible

If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. Old families, old customs, old styles survive because they are fit to survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. Submerge the good in a flood of the new, and good will come back to join the good which the new brings with it. Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old-fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival. These will come back.

Eddie Rickenbacker

style survival business

I believe that if you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you will hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. This is the sure way to win victories over inner defeat. It is the way a humble person meets life or death.

Eddie Rickenbacker

positive-thinking humble believe

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.

Eddie Rickenbacker

independence imagination character

Major Richard Bong was an example of the tragic and terrible price we must pay to maintain principles of human rights, of greater value than life itself. This gallant Air Force hero will be remembered because he made his final contribution to aviation in the dangerous role of test pilot of an untried experimental plane, a deed that places him among the stout-hearted pioneers who gave their lives in the conquest of sky and space.

Eddie Rickenbacker

space hero sky

Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life become more secure, more fraught with action, richer in experience and achievement.

Eddie Rickenbacker

motivational inspirational life

I don't care what you cover the seats with as long as you cover them with assholes.

Eddie Rickenbacker

aviation care long

Courage is about doing what you're afraid to do.

Eddie Rickenbacker

I would rather have a million friends than a million dollars.

Eddie Rickenbacker

eulogy inspirational friendship

I've cheated the Grim Reaper more times than anyone I know, and I'll fight like a wildcat until they nail the lid of my pine box down on me.

Eddie Rickenbacker

grim-reaper nails fighting

I can see that aerial warfare is actually scientific murder.

Eddie Rickenbacker

warfare murder interesting

The better I shoot, the less I have to maneuver.

Eddie Rickenbacker

The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business in to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down. His trained hand and eye and judgment are as much a part of his armament as his machinegun, and a fiftyfifty chance is the worst he will take or should take except where the show is of the kind that . . . justifies the sacrifice of plane or pilot.

Eddie Rickenbacker

sacrifice fighting eye

The sensation of dying is sweet, sensuous, placid. It is the easiest thing in the world to die. The hardest is to live.

Eddie Rickenbacker

dying sweet world

Flying saucers are real. Too many good men have seen them, that don't have hallucinations.

Eddie Rickenbacker

real military men

I am not such an egotist as to believe that God has spared me because I am I. I believe there is work for me to do and that I am spared to do it, just as you are.

Eddie Rickenbacker

i-believe believe

I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I'll be damned if I'll pay them to just sit there.

Eddie Rickenbacker

aviation guy pay

There is a peculiar gratification in receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world.

Eddie Rickenbacker

victory congratulations air

The biggest lesson I've learned . . . was that if you have all the fresh water you want to drink and all the food you want to eat, you ought never to complain about anything.