In honoring the Wright Brothers, it is customary and proper to recognize their contribution to scientific progress. But I believe it is equally important to emphasize the qualities in their pioneering life and the character in man that such a life produced. The Wright Brothers balanced sucess with modesty, science with simplicity. At Kitty Hawk their intellects and senses worked in mutual support. They represented man in balance, and from that balance came wings to lift a world.
Interpretation
The quote recognizes the Wright Brothers for their achievements while highlighting their character traits that contributed to their success.
Charles Lindbergh's quote reflects on the importance of not just the scientific achievements of the Wright Brothers, but also the personal qualities that defined their pioneering spirit. By emphasizing their modesty, balance, and collaborative intellect, Lindbergh suggests that these traits were instrumental in their groundbreaking work in aviation, ultimately presenting a holistic view of what it means to innovate and succeed.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech at an award ceremony to highlight the importance of personal qualities in achieving success.
How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life?
In wilderness I sense the miracle of life.
Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?
We are in the grip of a scientific materialism, caught in a vicious cycle where our security today seems to depend on regimentation and weapons which will ruin us tomorrow.
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
There is no better way to give comfort to an enemy than to divide the people of a nation over the issue of foreign war. There is no shorter road to defeat than by entering a war with inadequate preparation.
Don't look back. Just go ahead. Give ideas away. Under every idea there's a new idea waiting to be born.
I have an ambition to live 300 years. I will not live 300 years. Maybe I will live one year more. But I have the ambition. Why you will not have ambition? Why? Have the greatest ambition possible. You want to be immortal? Fight to be immortal. Do it. You want to make the most fantastic art or movie? Try. If you fail, is not important. We need to try.
My experience from 20 years of Africa is that the seemingly impossible is possible.
What we're doing here will send a giant ripple through the universe.
Oh the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
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