"Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine."

"It was remarkable to see from space how predictable people are. Our homes and towns are almost all in places with moderate temperatures, and they generally have the same shape - a thinly occupied outer blob of suburb surrounding a densely populated core, all based around a ready source of water."

"And now for Return to Flight, I'm chief of robotics working in the astronaut office in Houston, as a Canadian."

"I've had a chance to fly a lot of different airplanes, but it was nothing like the shuttle ride."

"There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more of less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction."

"Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy."

"I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it."

"These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived."