Wright, Wilbur
Along with his brother Orville, he invented, built, and flew the world's first successful airplane.
Most quoted
"The difficulties which obstruct the pathway to success in flying machine construction are of three general classes: (1) Those which relate to the construction of the sustaining wings; (2) those which relate to the generation and application of the power required to drive the machine through the air; (3) those relating to the balancing and steering of the machine after it is actually in flight."
— from Speech to Western Society of Engineers, 1901
"The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously at the birds soaring freely through space, at tremendous speed, without any obstruction, without any effort, in a leisurely and graceful manner."
— from Some Aeronautical Experiments, 1900
"The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously at the birds soaring freely through space, at tremendous speed, without effort, in a leisurely way, on the crest of the air current."
— from Speech to the Western Society of Engineers, 1900
All quotes by Wright, Wilbur (377)
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, who is poor.
The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their grueling travels across trackless lands in prehistoric times, looked enviously at the birds soaring freely through space, at speeds unknown to man, on the untroubled highway of the air.
I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother, Orville, that man would not fly for 50 years. Ever since, I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions.
The machine itself is but a small part of the problem. We have been working on the problem of equilibrium for years.
No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris... [it is] absolutely impossible.
The best and only way to learn to ride a bicycle is to ride it.
If we worked on the assumption that what is currently regarded as impossible is not really impossible, but merely difficult, we should not be so easily discouraged.
It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill.
The course of the experiment was not exactly according to program, but it was a success.
We could not have chosen a worse time to make our first trials.
The only way to learn to fly is to fly.
The fact that the machine has been made to fly is of no importance. The important thing is that we have learned how to fly.
We were lucky enough to have been born at the right time.
The age of the flying machine is at hand.
The problem of flight is one of the most difficult of all those with which man has ever grappled.
We are not in a hurry to make money, but we are in a hurry to make a flying machine.
The bird has learned to fly, and man will learn to fly.
Success is not in never falling, but in rising every time you fall.
The greatest value of our experiments is that they have taught us how little we know.
We have been trying to solve the problem of human flight for years, and we have not yet succeeded.
Contemporaries of Wright, Wilbur
Other Inventions born within 50 years of Wright, Wilbur (1867–1912).