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My Father Had Been Opposed To My Flying From The First And Had Never Flown Himself. However, He Had Agreed To Go Up With Me At The First Opportunity, And One Afternoon He Climbed Into The Cockpit And We Flew Over The Redwood Falls Together. From That Day On I Never Heard A Word Against My Flying And He Never Missed A Chance To Ride In The Plane.

-Charles Lindbergh

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My Father Had Been

Charles Lindbergh

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My Father Had Been Opposed To My Flying From The First And Had Never Flown Himself. However, He Had Agreed To Go Up With Me At The First Opportunity, And One Afternoon He Climbed Into The Cockpit And We Flew Over The Redwood Falls Together. From That Day On I Never Heard A Word Against My Flying And He Never Missed A Chance To Ride In The Plane.

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We Must Limit To A Reasonable Amount The Jewish Influence...whenever The Jewish Percentage Of Total Population Becomes Too High, A Reaction Seems To Invariably Occur. It Is Too Bad Because A Few Jews Of The Right Type Are, I Believe, An Asset To Any Country.

Not Long Ago, When I Was A Student In College, Just Flying An Airplane Seemed A Dream. But That Dream Turned Into Reality.

Isn't It Strange That We Talk Least About The Things We Think About Most?

I Realized That The Future Of Aviation, To Which I Had Devoted So Much Of My Life, Depended Less On The Perfection Of Aircraft Than On Preserving The Epoch-evolved Environment Of Life, And That This Was True Of All Technological Progress.

To Be A True Progressive It Is Not Sufficient To Stand Up And Say That One Belives In What Has Been Promulgated As Progressive Principles. One Must Be Progressive In Heart And Active In Promoting The Progressive Principles Of Today, Tomorrow And Always. There Is No Resting Point, For Humanity Is Ever Ascending To A Higher And Better Goal.

When The President Signs This Act, The Invisible Government By The Money Power Will Be Legalized.

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It Is About A Period In Aviation Which Is Now Gone, But Which Was Probably More Interesting Than Any The Future Will Bring. As Time Passes, The Perfection Of Machinery Tends To Insulate Man From Contact With The Elements In Which He Lives. The 'stratosphere' Planes Of The Future Will Cross The Ocean Without Any Sense Of The Water Below. Like A Train Tunneling Through A Mountain, They Will Be Aloof From Both The Problems And The Beauty Of The Earth's Surface.

Pilots Are Drawn To Flying Because It's A Perfect Combination Of Science, Romance And Adventure.

If We Can Combine Our Knowledge Of Science With The Wisdom Of Wildness, If We Can Nurture Civilization Through Roots In The Primitive, Man's Potentialities Appear To Be Unbounded.

The Life Of An Aviator Seemed To Me Ideal. It Involved Skill. It Brought Adventure. It Made Use Of The Latest Developments Of Science. Mechanical Engineers Were Fettered To Factories And Drafting Boards While Pilots Have The Freedom Of Wind With The Expanse Of Sky. There Were Times In An Aeroplane When It Seemed I Had Escaped Mortality To Look Down On Earth Like A God.

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I Owned The World That Hour As I Rode Over It. Free Of The Earth, Free Of The Mountains, Free Of The Clouds, But How Inseparably I Was Bound To Them.

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Now, All That I Feared Would Happen Has Happened. We Are At War All Over The World, And We Are Unprepared For It From Either A Spiritual Or A Material Standpoint.

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If I Had To Choose, I Would Rather Have Birds Than Airplanes.

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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.

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One Boy's A Boy, Two Boys Are Half A Boy; Three Boys Are No Boy At All.

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Self Improvement

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Consciousness Grows Independent Of The Ordinary Senses.

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I Don't Believe In Taking Foolish Chances, But Nothing Can Be Accomplished If We Don't Take Any Chances At All.

I'm Not Bound To Be In Aviation At All. I'm Here Only Because I Love The Sky And Flying More Than Anything Else On Earth. Of Course There's Danger; But A Certain Amount Of Danger Is Essential To The Quality Of Life. I Don't Believe In Taking Foolish Chances' But Nothing Can Be Accomplished Without Taking Any Chance At All.

Instead Of Agitating For War, The Jewish Groups In This Country Should Be Opposing It In Every Possible Way, For They Will Be Among The First To Feel Its Consequences. Tolerance Is A Virtue That Depends Upon Peace And Strength. History Shows That It Cannot Survive War And Devastation. A Few Very Far-sighted Jewish People Realize This And Stand Opposed To Intervention. But The Majority Still Do Not. Their Greatest Danger To This Country Lies In Their Ownership And Influence In Our Motion Pictures, Our Press, Our Radio, And Our Government.

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Sometimes, Flying Feels Too Godlike To Be Attained By Man. Sometimes, The World From Above Seems Too Beautiful, Too Wonderful, Too Distant For Human Eyes To See .

Science Intensifies Religious Truth By Cleansing It Of Ignorance And Superstition.

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It Is Not The Willingness To Kill On The Part Of Our Soldiers Which Most Concerns Me. That Is An Inherent Part Of War. It Is Our Lack Of Respect For Even The Admirable Characteristics Of Our Enemy; For Courage, For Suffering, For Death, For His Willingness To Die For His Beliefs, For His Companies And Squadrons Which Go Forth, One After Another, To Annihilation Against Our Superior Training And Equipment.

Air Power Is New To All Our Countries. It Brings Advantages To Some And Weakens Others; It Calls For Readjustment Everywhere.

If One Took No Chances, One Would Not Fly At All. Safety Lies In The Judgment Of The Chances One Takes.

When I Watch Species Other Than My Own, Their Instinct's Wisdom Is What Most Impresses And Disturbs Me.

And If At Times You Renounce Experience And Mind's Heavy Logic, It Seems That The World Has Rushed Along On Its Orbit, Leaving You Alone Flying Above A Forgotten Cloud Bank, Somewhere In The Solitude Of Interstellar Space.

The Remedy For Our Social Evils Does Not Consist So Much In Changing The System Of Government As It Does In Increasing The General Intelligence Of The People So That They May Learn How To Govern.

I Grow Aware Of Various Forms Of Man And Of Myself. I Am Form And I Am Formless, I Am Life And I Am Matter, Mortal And Immortal. I Am One And Many -- Myself And Humanity In Flux.

We Can So Reconstruct Society That It Will Be Self-perpetuating Instead Of As Now, Self-exhaustive.

Our Emphasis On Science Has Resulted In An Alarming Rise In World Populations, The Demand And Ever-increasing Emphasis Of Science To Improve Their Standards And Maintain Their Vigor. I Have Been Forced To The Conclusion That An Over-emphasis Of Science Weakens Character And Upsets Life's Essential Balance.

Alone? Is He Alone At Whose Right Side Rides Courage, With Skill Within The Cockpit And Faith Upon The Left? Does Solitude Surround The Brave When Adventure Leads The Way And Ambition Reads The Dials? Is There No Company With Him, For Whom The Air Is Cleft By Daring And The Darkness Made Light By Emprise?

I Believe The Risks I Take Are Justified By The Sheer Love Of The Life I Lead.

I Realized That If I Had To Choose, I Would Rather Have Birds Than Airplanes.

Aviation Has Struck A Delicately Balanced World, A World Where Stability Was Already Giving Way To The Pressure Of New Dynamic Forces, A World Dominated By A Mechanical, Materialist, Western European Civilization.

But Accuracy Means Something To Me. It's Vital To My Sense Of Values. I've Learned Not To Trust People Who Are Inaccurate. Every Aviator Knows That If Mechanics Are Inaccurate. Aircraft Crash.

History Has Recorded Nothing So Dramatic In Design, Nor So Skillfully Manipulated, As This Attempt To Create The National Reserve Association, Or The Federal Reserve.

Ideas Are Like Seeds, Apparently Insignificant When First Held In The Hand. Once Firmly Planted, They Can Grow And Flower Into Almost Anything At All, A Cornstalk, Or A Giant Redwood, Or A Flight Across The Ocean. Whatever A Man Imagines, He Can Achieve.

In Wilderness I Sense The Miracle Of Life, And Behind It Our Scientific Accomplishments Fade To Trivia.

Science, Freedom, Beauty, Adventure: What More Could You Ask Of Life? Aviation Combined All The Elements I Loved. There Was Science In Each Curve Of An Airfoil, In Each Angle Between Strut And Wire, In The Gap Of A Spark Plug Or The Color Of The Exhaust Flame. There Was Freedom In The Unlimited Horizon, On The Open Fields Where One Landed. A Pilot Was Surrounded By Beauty Of Earth And Sky. He Brushed Treetops With The Birds, Leapt Valleys And Rivers, Explored The Cloud Canyons He Had Gazed At As A Child. Adventure Lay In Each Puff Of Wind.

Then What Am I - The Body Substance Which I Can See With My Eyes And Feel With My Hands? Or Am I This Realization, This Greater Understanding Which Dwells Within It, Yet Expands Through The Universe Outside; A Part Of All Existence, Powerless But Without Need For Power; Immersed In Solitude, Yet In Contact With All Creation? There Are Moments When The Two Appear Inseparable, And Others When They Could Be Cut Apart By The Merest Flash Of Light.

Life's Values Originate In Circumstances Over Which The Individual Has No Control.

Flying Has Torn Apart The Relationship Of Space And Time: It Uses Our Old Clock But With New Yardsticks.

I Hope You Either Take Up Parachute Jumping Or Stay Out Of Single Motored Airplanes At Night.

Any Coward Can Sit In His Home And Criticize A Pilot For Flying Into A Mountain In A Fog. But I Would Rather, By Far, Die On A Mountainside Than In Bed. What Kind Of Man Would Live Where There Is No Daring? And Is Life So Dear That We Should Blame Men For Dying In Adventure? Is There A Better Way To Die?

What Kind Of Man Would Live A Life Without Daring? Is Life So Sweet That We Should Criticize Men That Seek Adventure? Is There A Better Way To Die?

The New Law Will Create Inflation Whenever The Trusts Want Inflation. From Now On Depressions Will Be Scientifically Created.

I Would Rather Live One Day In Maui Than One Month In New York.

Life Is A Culmination Of The Past, An Awareness Of The Present, An Indication Of A Future Beyond Knowledge, The Quality That Gives A Touch Of Divinity To Matter.

We Can Have Peace And Security Only So Long As We Band Together To Preserve That Most Priceless Possession, Our Inheritance Of European Blood, Only So Long As We Guard Ourselves Against Attack By Foreign Armies And Dilution By Foreign Races.

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Democracy Can Only Spring From Within A Nation Itself, Only From The Hearts And Minds Of Its People.

The Essence Of Life, I Concluded, Did Not Lie In The Material. It Penetrated, But Was Not Bound To, The Physical World Of Science.

Is He Alone Who Has Courage On His Right Hand And Faith On His Left Hand?

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The Idea Of Racial Inferiority Or Superiority Is Foreign To Me. I Can't Feel Inferior Or Superior To Another Man Because Of Race, Or In Any Way Antagonistic To Him. I Judge By The Individual, Not By His Race, And Have Always Done So. I Would Rather Have One Of My Children Marry Into A Good Family Of Any Race Than Into A Bad Family Of Any Other Race.

Here Was A Place Where Men And Life And Death Had Reached The Lowest Form Of Degradation. How Could Any Reward In National Progress Even Faintly Justify The Establishment And Operation Of Such A Place?

In A Time Of War, Truth Is Always Replaced By Propaganda.

Whatever A Man Imagines He Can Attain, If He Doesn't Become Too Arrogant And Encroach On The Rights Of The Gods.

Aviation Seems Almost A Gift From Heaven To Those Western Nations Who Were Already The Leaders Of Their Era, Strengthening Their Leadership, Their Confidence, Their Dominance Over Other Peoples.

Why Should Anyone Think A White Skin Superior In Evaluating The Qualities Of Human Life? I Did Not Really Admire A White Skin So Much Myself. Did I Not Prefer The Brown Skin That Came With Exposure To The Sun?

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My Aging Body Transmits An Ageless Life Stream. Molecular And Atomic Replacement Change Life's Composition. Molecules Take Part In Structure And In Training, Countless Trillions Of Them. After My Death, The Molecules Of My Being Will Return To The Earth And Sky. They Came From The Stars. I Am Of The Stars.

Living In Dreams Of Yesterday, We Find Ourselves Still Dreaming Of Impossible Future Conquests.

Under The Federal Reserve Act, Panics Are Scientifically Created. The Present Panic Is The First Scientifically Created One, Worked Out As We Figured, A Mathematical Equation.

Mathematical Equations

The Readiness To Blame A Dead Pilot For An Accident Is Nauseating, But It Has Been The Tendency Ever Since I Can Remember. What Pilot Has Not Been In Positions Where He Was In Danger And Where Perfect Judgment Would Have Advised Against Going?

Peace Is A Virgin Who Dare Not Show Her Face Without Strength, Her Father, For Protection.

I Learned That Danger Is Relative, And The Inexperience Can Be A Magnifying Glass.

What Makes Human Power Erupt Like A Volcano? What Destroy's It? The Civilizations Of Rome, Greece, Egypt, China Were All Eruptions From A Human Core.

A Great Industrial Nation May Conquer The World In The Span Of A Single Life, But Its Achilles' Heel Is Time. Its Children, What Of Them?

Conquer The World

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Whether Outwardly Or Inwardly, Whether In Space Or Time, The Farther We Penetrate The Unknown, The Vaster And More Marvelous It Becomes.

I Don't Believe In Taking Unnecessary Risks, But A Life Without Risk Isn't Worth Living.

No Right Of Preference Exists In Favor Of Person, Property, Or Business. Personal Claims And Ambitions Must Yield In Favor Of Whatever Best Serves The General Welfare.

These Phantoms Speak With Human Voices — Friendly, Vapor- Like Shapes, Without Substance, Able To Vanish Or Appear At Will, To Pass In And Out Through The Walls Of The Fuselage As Though No Walls Were There. At Times, Voices Come Out Of The Air Itself, Clear Yet Far Away, Traveling Through Distances That Can't Be Measured By The Scale Of Human Miles; Familiar Voices, Conversing And Advising On My Flight, Discussing Problems Of My Navigation, Reassuring Me, Giving Me Messages Of Importance Unattainable In Ordinary Life.

God Made Life Simple. It Is Man Who Complicates It.

Without Death There Would Be No Awareness Of Life, And The Recurring Selection And Renewal That Has Caused Life's Progress Would Be Ended.

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Life Is Like A Landscape. You Live In The Midst Of It But Can Describe It Only From The Vantage Point Of Distance.

Man Is A Mixture Of Desires That Extend Beyond His Knowledge And Often Result In Action Conflicting With Rationality.

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