Wright Brothers (Orville & Wilbur) — "The machine is practically ready for its public demonstration."

"The desire to fly is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who, in their monotonous lives, looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, on the wings of the wind."

"Success in inventing depends on the close observation of nature."

"We were not as a matter of fact in the habit of thinking of the future. We were too busy with the present."

"The flying machine which will really fly might be evolved by the combined and continuous efforts of mathematicians and mechanicians in from one million to ten million years — provided, of course, we c…"

"We could not but feel that the time was at hand for man to make a practical flight."