Willy Ley Quotes

New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.

Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.

I don't think the space station is innovative. Going to the moon was innovative because we had no idea how to do it.

Science is the key to our future, and if you don't believe in science, then you're holding everybody back.

You can't be on the cusp of innovation and at the forefront of technology if you're wearing blinders. If you don't have an exploration program where you're exploring your world here on Earth, underwater, and in space, then you're wearing blinders and handicapping yourself.

Apollo was designed not to conquer enemies but to conquer ignorance.

Who brings tomorrow into the present if not the scientists, technicians and engineers?

Scientists are the true driving force of civilization.

Science does not just drive space travel - space travel also drives science.

An end of something means the beginning of something else, and I don't think that something else is going to be the death of the manned space program.

I think the curiosity of mankind, that we want something unknown. Like, 500 years ago, humankind wanted to know what the other side of the ocean is, and it was a very risky project, and then we decided that probably we can fly; let's fly higher. And now we're flying space station, and still it's not enough for us: we want to know what's beyond.

We are lucky to live in an age in which we are still making discoveries.

Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said Because it is there. Well, space is there, and were going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.

Science is the most exciting and sustained enterprise of discovery in the history of our species. It is the great adventure of our time. We live today in an era of discovery that far outshadows the discoveries of the New World five hundred years ago.

I am accused often of too much experimentation.., but what else should I do when all other factors of man are in the same condition. I thrust forward into space as science and the rest do.

Priestley [said] that each discovery we make shows us many others that should be made.

To use Newton's words, our efforts up till this moment have but turned over a pebble or shell here and there on the beach, with only a forlorn hope that under one of them was the gem we were seeking. Now we have the sieve, the minds, the hands, the time, and, particularly, the dedication to find those gems-no matter in which favorite hiding place the children of distant worlds have placed them.

Science is a field which grows continuously with ever expanding frontiers.

The space shuttle was designed, at least in part, to broaden our knowledge of the universe. To scientists, the vehicle was a tool; to engineers, it was their creation.

Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction - in short, between an old today and a new tomorrow.

'Star Trek' says that it has not all happened, it has not all been discovered, that tomorrow can be as challenging and adventurous as any time man has ever lived.

Space is going to be commonplace.

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.

Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted.