Scott Kelly > Quotes

“It drives me nuts that our food specialist insist on giving us the same number of chocolate, vanilla, and butterscotch puddings, when the laws of physics dictate chocolate will disappear much faster. No one gets a vanilla craving in space (or on earth).”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“There is a fine line between ritual and superstition, and in a life-threatening business such as spaceflight, superstition can be comforting even to the nonbeliever.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“If you destroy your identity, if you cut all ties and fake your death, then what’s left? Something without labels, something with money
and freedom.”
― Scott Kelly

“Jacob Thorke. My label, but not the description of a person. The prints are the most permanent thing about me.”
― Scott Kelly

“Slow is efficient. Efficient is fast. Slow is fast.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“I heard sad choirs in my mind. There was nothing left of Rachel in the world. He cherished what he'd shown me, and now it was gone. Eureka.”
― Scott Kelly, [sic]

“The dead don’t die. Death is something a living person suffers through, once the dead are gone from here. The departed don’t know anything about dread, or longing, or the inevitable. They leave that to the survivors.”
― Scott Kelly

“Gennady, Misha, and I all served in our militaries before being chosen to fly in space, and though it's something we never talked about, we all know we could have been ordered to kill one another. Now we are taking part in the largest peaceful international collaboration in history.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“On my last flight to the space station, a mission of 159 days, I lost bone mass, my muscles atrophied, and my blood redistributed itself in my body, which strained and shrank the walls of my heart. More troubling, I experienced problems with my vision, as many other astronauts have. I have been exposed to more than thirty times the radiation of a person on Earth, equivalent to about ten chest X-rays every day. This exposure will increase my risk of a fatal cancer for the rest of my life. None of this compares, though, to the most troubling risk: that something bad could happen to someone I love while I'm in space with no way for me to come home.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“Change is scary, failure is scary, life can be scary! But if we don’t push ourselves and challenge ourselves despite the uncertainty, we will never know what we can achieve.”
― Scott Kelly, Ready for Launch: An Astronaut's Lessons for Success on Earth

“My philosophy is that for complicated jobs, if you aren't ahead of schedule, you're already behind.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“In the future, there will be a word for the specific kind of nostalgia that we feel for living things.”
― Scott Kelly

“Most people would not have gotten past the setbacks she'd faced, but through intelligence, grit, and fierce determination, she had made the life for herself that she wanted.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“I miss cooking. I miss chopping fresh food, the smell vegetables give up when you first slice into them. I miss the smell of the unwashed skins of fruit, the sight of fresh produce piled high in grocery stores. I miss grocery stores, the shelves of bright colors and the glossy tile floors and the strangers wandering the aisles. I miss people. I miss the experience of meeting new people and getting to know them, learning about a life different from my own, hearing about things people experienced that I haven't. I miss the sound of children playing, which always sounds the same no matter their language. I miss the sound of people talking and laughing in another room. I miss rooms. I miss doors and door frames and the creak of wood floorboards when people walk around in old buildings. I miss sitting on my couch, sitting on a chair, sitting on a bar stool. I miss the feeling of resting after opposing gravity all day. I miss the rustle of papers, the flap of book pages turning. I miss drinking from a glass. I miss setting things down on a table and having them stay there. I miss the sudden chill of wind on my back, the warmth of sun on my face. I miss showers. I miss running water in all its forms: washing my face, washing my hands. I miss sleeping in a bed - the feel of sheets, the heft of a comforter, the welcoming curve of a pillow. I miss the colors of clouds at different times of day and the variety of sunrises and sunsets on Earth.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“If you consider the cost of constructing and maintaining the space station, the mutual adoration society probably costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“In the cavernous hangar known as Building 254 we pull on our Sokol suits... The chest opening is then sealed through a disconcertingly low-tech process of gathering the edges of the fabric together and securing them with elastic bands... Once I got to the space station, I learned the Russians use the exact same rubber bands to seal their garbage bags in space.”
― Scott Kelly, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery

“Some good came of Eureka. More good could come of it. Could the game help me? Could it help anyone?”
― Scott Kelly, [sic]

“These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words," he said.
"We're better than this," he said. "We must do better.”
― Scott Kelly

“Short blonde hair, big rectangular forehead, like Frankenstein made a second monster, and that monster loved death metal and Twinkies.”
― Scott Kelly