The Quote Book

Compiled by:
Barry Lewis, Tom Rich, & Roger Corson
Houston, Texas
January 1994

In late 1974 or early 1975, Barry Lewis, an engineer at McDonnell Douglas in Houston, Texas, began a collection of quotes that he kept in a handwritten notebook. When he left the company in June of 1976, he left a copy of his notebook with Tom Rich who then enthusiastically took up the task of adding to it. In 1978, when Tom's work took him to another group, I began my own notebook of quotes and included in it much of the material accumulated by Barry and Tom up to that time. I have maintained the notebook until the present and so it contains material gathered over a period of approximately nineteen years. The notebook eventually became known as simply The Quote Book.

Many of the quotes in this book are innocent statements made in conversations that were often part of the everyday work involved in designing the navigation and guidance systems for the Space Shuttle and the Space Station. Others were made in those unavoidable conversations that spontaneously arise between the spurts of productive work. These, from this second group, cover an amazingly diverse range of topics.

My process for choosing quotes for this book has been somewhat selective. To be recorded, a statement usually must transcend the conversation; it should be humorous or profound, even when removed from its context. Oftimes a quotable statement has been overheard in a conversation across the aisle or over the wall. But strict adherence to these rules was not maintained. Some of the quotes will seem to make no sense at all and these have been preserved simply because they are absurd or puzzling or they perpetuate a nostalgia. Many of the quotes are only humorous in the context of my particular aerospace engineering world and it is to that audience that this book is mainly addressed.

Roger Corson


Five times zero is still zero.
~ Cynthia

Birds don't get pregnant.
~ Barry Lewis

A person is more important than the Shuttle.
~ Karen Swallow

I'm so poor I can't even afford to go window shopping.
~ Eddy Mitchell

He who laughs at himself laughs best.
~ Pete

Smokers are latent pyromaniacs.
~ Quinn

Dead plants don't deserve decent burials.
~ Terry

Charity is love in action.
~ Harold Jackson

The ancient Hindus were real big on continued fractions.
~ John Dees

If you have a ball of green cheese rolling down a hill, its a peculiar problem.
~ John Dees

Everybody can't be on the bottom of an organization.
~ Earl Thompson

Chickens cackle logarithmically.
~ John Dees

You can't clave automatically without an autoclave.
~ John Dees

You can't boogie unless you have money.
~ Bill Wedlake

A new policy is born every five minutes.
~ Jim Helm

A little knowledge never hurt anybody.
~ Randolph Constantine

The longer you program the more paranoid you get.
~ Jim Helm

Europe is a pretty big country.
~ Mrs. W. E. Grehn

All good mummies die in the swamp.
~ Cathy Grehn

There aren't many tall shortstops.
~ Bill Webb

I've never met a dancing angel.
~ Bill Wedlake

Nobody likes anchovies.
~ Cathy Grehn

Nothing gets crunchy in a microwave oven.
~ Terry DeLuna

Mucilage is good but sticky.
~ Jim Helm

I want to be a cantaloupe.
~ Cathy Lewis

There are a lot of things you can do at four o'clock in the morning.
~ Jim Ewell

There is no such thing as a constant constant.
~ Jim Ewell

A girl's plumbing is inefficient.
~ Eileen Bless

The most important thing an engineer can do is evaluate complicated functions.
~ John Dees

You're not ugly if you can't help it.
~ Cathy Lewis

You can wash your hands but you can never wash your steering wheel.
~ John Dees

Books are for marking in.
~ Bob Stevens

Thievery is mean.
~ Cathy Lewis

Purgatory is Catholic priest job security.
~ Bill Wedlake

A hurricane is kind of like a FSSR.
~ Bill Gibson

Picking your nose is ugly.
~ Cathy Lewis

Mountain climbers don't live long.
~ Lowell Duncan

Data bases and sweaters are at a premium.
~ Dave Lukaszewski

Extreme viewpoints are always wrong.
~ Mom Lukaszewski

Raising kids is good experience for writing FSSRs.
~ Dave Lukaszewski

The sun don't shine on the same dog every day.
~ Coach Steve Sloan

North doesn't change during the day.
~ Bill Wedlake

Unit vectors don't have units.
~ Bill Wedlake

Anything hairy is beautiful.
~ Wanda Marquis

When I get a little drunk, I'm pretty good.
~ Jane McFaddin

A little bit of knowledge is dangerous.
~ Debbie Shoush

Symmetry is not important in Christmas trees.
~ Cathy Lewis

Don't build your dog house in the shape of a pyramid.
~ Barry Lewis

Imagine if snake oil cured cancer.
~ Randolph Constantine

God doesn't make anybody do anything.
~ Barry Lewis

Used car dealers don't have very many friends.
~ Charles Arvey

You eat dead bug eggs every day of your life.
~ John Dees

You're really eating live bug eggs if you don't cook your cereal.
~ John Dees

There's no Moses in the Bible, only Abraham, Noah, and the Garden of Eden.
~ Neela Mayur

Sym prints are God's gift to man.
~ Barry Lewis

Bad card players never bluff.
~ Phil Lewis

There's nothing romantic about a dirty sock.
~ Cathy Lewis

If it wasn't for the sun you wouldn't be here.
~ Mike Rasmussen

Garlic comes out in sweat.
~ Randolph Constantine

Secret information is never secret.
~ Mike Rasmussen

If God were a FSSR writer he would have sticky-backed the stars in the heavens.
~ José Spencer

There's a lot of meat on a horse.
~ Randolph Constantine

Nobody ever gets killed on Walt Disney.
~ Cathy Corder

Long and wide are not the same thing.
~ Mike Corder

Dogs don't dig in compost piles.
~ Charles Arvey

You can always sit on your speaker but you can't listen to a chair.
~ Guinn Unger

Murder is something criminals do.
~ Tom Rich

The right to the pursuit of happiness is not the right to catch it.
~ Randolph Constantine

Every airfield has power lines.
~ Kurt Schmeckpeper

I've never seen a man with pretty handwriting.
~ Charles Arvey

Computers are made to serve.
~ Tom Rich

One child substitute is enough.
~ Randolph Constantine

Things won't be like this when we get to Heaven.
~ Barry Lewis

AM and PM are open intervals.
~ Randolph Constantine

Sleeping is habit-forming.
~ Tom Rich

If you've got a camera in your hand, you've got a licence to be eccentric.
~ Tom Rich

Progress reports are our most important product.
~ Randolph Constantine

Bone is a viscous fluid.
~ Randolph Constantine

You can't put a Band-Aid on a fly.
~ Johnny Carson

Theory Y does not work in the army.
~ Randolph Constantine

Lunch is where your sandwich is.
~ Barry Lewis

Carbohydrates don't hurt you on the weekends.
~ Tom Rich

Nothing can go at infinite speed.
~ John Dees

Nothing is everything.
~ Mike Rasmussen

Hardware is a computer made out of metal; software is a computer made out of bubble gum.
~ Randolph Constantine

Plants have redundant leaves.
~ Tom Rich

There's no such thing as a good way to kill yourself.
~ Larry Friesen

A true Christian could never work for McDonnell Douglas.
~ Ray McClain

I wonder if God ever backspaces and rewrites the universe.
~ Larry Friesen

The universe is a stochastic process.
~ Tom Rich

You can't really see chords.
~ Randolph Constantine

Fruit is pregnant flowers.
~ Mike Rasmussen

I'm not anti-male; I'm just pro-female.
~ Linda Drapela

I think if you're going to be consistent, you ought to be consistent all the time.
~ Roger Corson

Everybody's father hates ice cream truck drivers.
~ Roger Corson

Schmeckpeper is surrounded by a probability field which alters the laws of chance; in other words, Schmeckpeper is a probability magnet.
~ Roger Corson

Ignorance is bliss; that's why I'm so happy.
~ Jim Helm

Winter is that period in Houston when the outside temperature is comfortable.
~ Roger Corson

Some people think that just because it has inertia, it's real.
~ Roger Corson

I'm partial to blondes in 'vettes.
~ Roger Corson

Electrons don't stick to Scotch tape.
~ Tom Rich

Quasimoto believes in hunches.
~ Dotty

The problem is that we don't understand the problem.
~ Jim Helm

Pressure brings out the talent in me.
~ Dotty

Monday is a Rosemary day.
~ Randolph Constantine

It seems that every car I ever bought I've had to tow home.
~ Jim Helm

I think the key to the whole thing is the curds and whey.
~ Linda Drapela

The end result of any absurd conversation is a quote.
~ Tom Rich

What's so absurd about the technology of whales?
~ Roger Corson

I'm not fast, I'm just eager.
~ Kurt Schmeckpeper

Cheap is as cheap does.
~ John Dees

I have a neat buckle that I don't wear because it has a naked lady on it.
~ Bill Wedlake

It's very important to process words.
~ John Dees

Man was made to suffer.
~ Dave Shiffrin

Crummy is in the mind of the beholder.
~ John Dees

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
~ John Dees

There's a difference between being stubborn and being right.
~ Tom Rich

We seem to be made to suffer; it's our lot in life.
~ See-Threepio

Negative one by itself is kind of strange.
~ Roger Corson

One should reward one's own best efforts.
~ Kurt Schmeckpeper

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.
~ Al Jackson

Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.
~ John Dees

When in doubt, mumble. When you're wrong, shout.
~ Mike Rasmussen

Big vortices give birth to small vortices.
~ Larry Friesen

Barns are a good thing to photograph.
~ Roger Corson

Most old ladies are mean.
~ Jan Bhatt

If you forget to flare, God won't help you.
~ Dave Henderson

Zeros can be monkey wrenches sometimes.
~ anonymous

If you don't turn it on, you can't break it.
~ Neil Hutchinson

I never met a FSSR I didn't write.
~ Lowell Duncan

We can handle a minus sign.
~ Paul Stranahan

It's rough to outrun an avalanche.
~ Bob Peterson

Oats itch.
~ Jim Helm

I spend in spurts.
~ Robert Theis

Most spend in dollars.
~ Larry Foster

A spurt's worth more.
~ Robert Theis

A good Christian always blames natural disasters on Mother Nature, rather than God Himself.
~ Dave Henderson

I don't serve on Tiger Teams.
~ Bill Gibson

I like hardware stores.
~ Rosemary Killen

I don't like living in a straight line.
~ anonymous

I don't get on a last name basis with women.
~ Paul Stranahan

Gravity doesn't change sign when you go backwards.
~ Dave Henderson

Every piece of rock that sticks up out of the ocean has people on it.
~ Bill Gibson

You don't bluff at nickel-dime stuff.
~ Bill Wedlake

I used to do good things on roller skates when I was a kid.
~ José Spencer

You can't spit tobacco in a space suit.
~ Phil Muhm

You lose points for getting killed.
~ Phil Muhm

All days around here are equally bad.
~ Bill Gibson

I've never seen a sick astronaut.
~ Rosemary Killen

I never met a differential equation I could solve.
~ Dave Henderson

If you're invited to the hunt, you ought to stay for the kill.
~ Bill Gibson

There's a lot of splashing when a hog washes.
~ Paul Stranahan

You can't quit me; I'm fired.
~ Bruce Abramson

My mind is only as sharp as my pencil.
~ Dave Henderson

"Picked up" is a very loose term.
~ Carol Toole

Guppies are the rabbits of the water world.
~ Fred Toole

The world looks much more exact when your glasses are clean.
~ José Spencer

Some people don't appreciate landing lights.
~ Rick Wimpress

You can make a barn door fly if you put an engine big enough on it.
~ Dave Henderson

Let's face it - we're just aerospace groupies.
~ Bruce Abramson

I'd better stop talking; I've said all I know.
~ Neil Hutchinson

I think sitting on top of a 747 is precarious.
~ Dave Henderson

You should never get married until you can't talk yourself out of it.
~ Dave Henderson

There comes a time in your life when you want to see what you look like in miniature.
~ Bruce Abramson

The early bird who gets the worm works for someone who comes in late and owns the worm farm.
~ Jack Rich

The earth is a perfect sphere when you're in the third grade.
~ Jeanette French

Portuguese is Spanish spoken by a drunken Frenchman.
~ José Spencer

If it's finite today, it couldn't have been infinite yesterday.
~ Tom Rich

Scruples are what you scrape up off the floor after you've eaten cookies.
~ Dave Henderson

All the ignorance in engineering is concentrated around a few coefficients.
~ Angelo Miele

Being upset with IBM is like being upset with the weather.
~ Dave Henderson

Cantaloupe smoothies are really good.
~ Lou Zyla

I'm allowed only so many calories; I'd rather drink them than eat them.
~ Jeanette French

I'd give anything to have a dull Saturday.
~ Lou Zyla

Nothing's perfect - like in avocados, they made the pits too big.
~ Brian Schoonmaker

TV is like a pornographic movie with all the pornography taken out.
~ Dave Henderson

Two can live as cheaply as the wife lived before the marriage.
~ Frank Kittle

Life is an entropy pump.
~ R. E. Jeffries

You never know that you know all the answers.
~ C. Kraft Jr.

I went to a restaurant one time that had all the catfish you can eat and I ate all the catfish they had.
~ Frank Kittle

If [the crewmen] can't hear or they can't breathe they'll probably do something about it.
~ Rhea Seddon, astronaut

I never did anything with positrons.
~ Tracker John McIntire

Truth has nothing to do with reality.
~ Jackie Gleason

Where there's a will there's a way out.
~ Ellis Henry

If it isn't simple it's wrong.
~ Bob Savely

The requirement ought to reflect the implementation.
~ John Aaron

Nobody can take a subject and beat it to death like Task A.
~ Steve Desrosiers



Necktie Quotes

Can I borrow that?
~ Jim Blucker

Your necktie's on fire.
~ Frank Kittle

You took a perfectly good shirt and made a tie out of it.
~ Mike Little



Silence is my favorite noise.
~ Frank Kittle

How can anyone sing in public.
~ Gary Cernosek

If it don't whistle, it ain't wassail.
~ Tracker John McIntire.

The closer you get to a short person, the taller they look.
~ Lynn Morris

The problem with working in [Redundancy Management] is that you have to ask a question three times before you get an answer.
~ Tracker John McIntire

The first rule of thumb about NASA I-loads is: Logic does not prevail.
~ Tracker John McIntire

Everybody's talking so abstractly that I can't figure out what they're saying.
~ Lou Zyla

Definition of Operations Research: Determination of a best solution from insufficient and imperfect data.
~ Bond, Victor Bond

One criterion for being an OR guy is you have to be weak in mathematics.
~ Don Jezewski

Pork chops à la mode.
~ Henry Schneider

There is no cause so noble that idiots will not adhere to it.
~ Larry Niven

There's no good ground functions.
~ Henry Schneider

We can keep a secret. It's the people we tell that can't keep a secret.
~ Robert Peterson

You can't start a new civilization in zero gee.
~ Roger Corson

You know your having fun when you've got balloons.
~ David Letterman

It's easier to seek forgiveness than permission.
~ Warren Eastman

'Himicanes' are not as bad as 'hericanes'.
~ Mike Little

...to boldly split infinitives that no man had split before...
~ Douglas Adams

There's no way that I'll fly on something that has it's flight control system written in LISP.
~ Mike Little

I have found as I grow older, that communications personnel are the hardest people to communicate with.
~ Jerry Clause

Blackberries are red when they're green.
~ Ned Yelverton

We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty.
~ Douglas Adams

Figures never lie but liars never figure.
~ Larry Henshen

People can't continue to be stupid forever.
~ Bill Jones

You need some people that are willing to do anything.
~ Mike Little

Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
~ anonymous

If you can't rely on a fifteen year old program that was designed by the foremost authority on optimization, then what can you rely on?
~ Mike Little

Everyone ought to get a yearly physical at least once every five years.
~ Bill Gill

Whether your analysis is relevant or not is irrelevant.
~ Mike Little

I'm paranoid; but am I paranoid enough?
~ Larry Niven

You can't learn from your mistakes if you never made any.
~ Mike Little

Don't forget that you don't want to remember everything you know when you write proposals.
~ John Kelly

None of it's original - except the errors.
~ Jim Watson

You have to make sure you misunderstand it correctly.
~ Jim Watson

Backup nav is for retrograde orbits.
~ Roger Corson

If I were two-faced, would I be using this one?
~ Abe Lincoln

In all the world there are two kinds of people. There are those who think there are two kinds of people, and there are those who don't.
~ anonymous

Nobody can be wrong all of the time. Even a clock that doesn't go is right twice a day.
~ Benny Hill

Entertainment is a thing of the past - today we've got television.
~ Archie Bunker

Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery
~ Butch Stegall

Efficiency is concerned with doing things right. Effectiveness is concerned with doing the right thing.
~ Butch Stegall

You don't worry about ROI when you don't have any work.
~ Mike Little

Mythical decision making.
~ Brandt Rhodes

It's impossible to drive a car and not sin.
~ Mark Yelverton

We're going to convert to metric - inch by inch.
~ Nelson Thompson

While Congress fiddles, NASA burns.
~ Brandt Rhodes

Anytime TMIS helps us we have problems.
~ Butch Stegall

It's like dragging out a guillotine and saying, "We're going to chop bananas."
~ Brandt Rhodes on the raising of "The Wall"

Our concepts are more advanced than the Russian's hardware.
~ Henry Schneider

Treat engineers as a resource instead of a cost.
~ Roger Corson

The secret of the universe is a good second-order equation.
~ anonymous

Asking is just polite demanding.
~ Max Headroom

We are not the experts, but we know more about it than anybody.
~ GN&C

The universe is simply one of those things that happens from time to time.
~ Edward Tryon

I don't trust people who wear pajamas.
~ Mike Little

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits.
~ anonymous

I never think of a manager needing any skills.
~ Mike Little

Recompilation is just nature's way of telling you that your design was wrong in the first place.
~ Grady Booch

We need doers, not thinkers.
~ Butch Stegall

UNIX is for hackers that don't have any important analysis to do.
~ Roger Corson

Orville and Wilbur had the "Wright Stuff."
~ Roger Corson

Hofstader's Law
Things always take longer than you expect; even when you take Hofstader's Law into account.

I know what we're supposed to be doing, but what are we supposed to accomplish?
~ Mike Little

I wonder what you dream when your dead?
~ Brandt Rhodes

...empirical silliness...
~ Mike Little

I'm so frustrated; I feel like a chicken trying to dig a worm out of a rock.
~ Brandt Rhodes

Young people tend to believe they will live forever. You can see that in the way teenagers drive.
~ Howard Eisner

An engineer's work is never done; mainly because he never does it.
~ Nelson Thompson

I'm too lazy to figure out the easy way.
~ Mike Little

...he will commit posthumous suicide yesterday.
~ Petr Beckman

Show business is like high school with money.
~ Martin Mull

Where there's a will there's a work around.
~ Roger Corson

AASC is a hobby shop.
~ anonymous

They got no business having an opinion; that's my opinion.
~ Mike Little

Don't worry; be stupid.
~ anonymous

Live your life so that on Judgment Day you'll be called for jury duty.
~ Gil Stern

A woman's disposition is an exponentially correlated random variable with a short time constant.
~ Roger Corson

He's a good guy; he knows what he doesn't know.
~ Butch Stegall

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
~ Bill Vaughn

I got so many non-laughing matters.
~ Butch Stegall

I like to think of myself as the Sam Malone of Rocket Scientists.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

Buzzword oriented programming can only be supported by a strongly hyped language.
~ John Dees

It's nice to know I can get a little help from my panty hose when I need it.
~ Kelli "Fred" Frederick

If it's there, I'm going to stare.
~ Kelli "Fred" Frederick

Pictures tear, I'd rather stare.
~ Bob Reiher

Iterators are an intrusion of the implementation on the abstraction.
~ Mike Little

Girls are like that - they think they're flirting and they're just being dumb.
~ Jeff Patterson

My life keeps getting in the way of my future.
~ Blair Brown as Molly Dodd

I started this job two weeks ago and I'm already three weeks behind.
~ Blair Brown as Molly Dodd

I'm getting my master's in math to improve my quality of life.
~ Sunil Fotedar

It's all right for me to have a bad attitude.
~ Mike Little

I don't think anyone knows what Butch thinks.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

It's hard being an over achiever.
~ Kelly Murdock

You've breathed the rarefied air of higher mathematics.
~ Brandt Rhodes

You are amazed at all the things you know which are not on the examination paper.
~ Helen Keller

One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think.
~ Helen Keller

Brandt, you're always fantasizing about being a sniper.
~ Kelly Murdock

Once you get burned, you don't get too close to the flame anymore.
~ Kelli "Fred" Frederick

What year is going to go down in history?
~ Mike Little

The Space Station Freedom will be the center of the universe.
~ Billy Chen

CIDSC II, The Wrath of Pam
~ Kelly Murdock

Oh, count the ways I've erred!
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

Brandt knows all about stuff that can kill people.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

Why think about it if you don't have to.
~ Mike Little

Huh!
~ Dell Davidson

I can't wear turquoise; it doesn't go with my eyes.
~ Butch Stegall

Rampant copyright infringement is the sincerest form of flattery.
~ Matt Groening on bootleg Simpson's tee-shirts

It's okay to be absent minded, as long as your mind isn't absent.
~ John Talley

I got this feeling that there are some people that are smarter than me.
~ Mike Little

Live fast, die young, and leave a good looking corpse.
~ Brent Harding

That's like brain candy.
~ Brandt Rhodes

Every once in a while, I know what I'm talking about.
~ Bob Reiher

Please don't tell my mother that I work for Level II; she thinks I play the piano in a whorehouse.
~ Kelly Murdock

There's nothing like a pair of well parametrized catenaries.
~ Brandt Rhodes

The introduction of suitable abstractions is our only mental aid to organize and master complexity.
~ E. W. Dijkstra

I'm not that big on maturity; the ultimate maturity is the grave.
~ Dell Davidson

Women are hormonally deranged.
~ Brent Harding

A monocoque piece of caramel.
~ Mike Little

Butch has been known to exaggerate.
~ Roger Corson

And that is an understatement.
~ Brandt Rhodes

Millions of persons long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon.
~ Susan Ertz

Just because everything is different doesn't mean that anything has changed.
~ Irene Poter

If error is corrected whenever it is recognized as such, the path of error is the path of truth.
~ Hans Reichenbach

I'm not afraid of being scared.
~ Brandt Rhodes

Look before you lick.
~ Brent Harding

Testing is for people who make mistakes the first time.
~ R. Corson

I really stunk at Bingo yesterday!
~ Steve Schaub

DID du jour
~ Peggy Leier

Mike's time scale is that of a tree; mine is like a shrew's. If I don't consume my own body weight every forty-five minutes I'll die.
~ Brent Harding

I don't want to over generalize this to the point of abstract nausea.
~ Gary Cernosek

I was just trying to play John McLaughlin; don't mess with my fantasies, man.
~ Jeff Patterson

The Rational is not our customer!
~ Jeff Patterson

Sometimes this place feels like a sitcom.
~ Roger Corson

I need to be more like [my dad]; I'd save money and brain cells.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

There's no requirement to be prudent.
~ Butch Stegall

Some people are more perceptive of their environment than I am.
~ Mike Little

Really! You're getting married! To what?
~ Mike Little

It must have been mutant day at PharMor.
~ Garlan Healer

I strive to be the moral voice of this group.
~ Jeff Patterson

It's better to be busy than not.
~ Wisdom of John Kelly

I want that in needlepoint.
~ Dell Davidson

Quite frankly, all the benefits of Structured Analysis are currently hidden because of all the problems with the document.
~ Bob Kaster

Document everything you write.
~ Brandt Rhodes

The Lie is true.
~ Kelly Murdock

Maybe if they straighten out a few deck chairs, the ship won't sink.
~ Dave Anderson

I don't like people trying to solve problems with non-solutions.
~ Mike Little

When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it's two hours. That's relativity.
~ Albert Einstein

Planning and hard work tend to make people lucky.
~ Garlan Healer

The corporate Strategic Business Objective is to win the Malcombe Baldridge award.
~ Brandt Rhodes

You can't let inertia stop progress.
~ Rob North

A cubic light year is a pretty big volume.
~ Mike Little

We can't work the FSSR for the rest of our lives.
~ John Kelly

Chicks are stupid; chicks shouldn't be allowed to work in engineering.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action.
~ A. Kindsvater

We were there until we left.
~ Kelly Murdock

Does it have a mouse?
~ John Kelly

Optimism is a mania for maintaining all is well when things are going badly.
~ Voltaire, in Candide

How come we keep having these breakthroughs in science that teach us what we can't do?
~ Mike Little

Man must rise above the earth - to the top of the atmosphere and beyond - for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.
~ Socrates, 500 B.C.

I probably rate myself higher than anyone else.
~ Mike Little

There is no such thing as "too much work" when your wife is planning your day.
~ Dave Anderson

Here come da scrub! Here come da scrub!
~ Kelly Murdock

Particle board is the bologna of lumber.
~ Mike Little

Just before Fairchild went out of business, Honeywell decided not to merge with them because the new company would have been called Fairwell Honeychild.
~ Bill Kunce

Theatre is life
Film is art
Television is furniture
~ seen on a T-shirt

Emotionally, cats are a low maintenance animal.
~ Brandt Rhodes

I wish that the rest of the program would quit making us look good.
~ Mike Little

When people lose their jobs, it causes unemployment.
~ Calvin Coolidge

You can count the top five teams in America on one hand.
~ Coach Jud Heathcote

This is 100% half-baked!
~ Mike Little

We're building tomorrow's space station with yesterday's technology.
~ Brandt Rhodes

When it's right, it's beautiful; when it's beautiful, it's not necessarily right.
~ Butch Stegall

AIMS users are at the bottom of the barrel as far as I'm concerned.
~ Jeff Patterson

I really believe that people who have no stress or tension are not really there.
~ Mike Little

My dad always used to tell me, "I'd rather be rich and healthy than poor and sick."
~ Dave Anderson

I was proud to be able to answer the question quickly and accurately. I said, "I don't know."
~ Mark Twain

I'm not saying how long it would take IBM to code, but it would take an engineer a half a day.
~ Dave Barrows

It's so clear you can see all the pollution.
~ Mike Little

You have to be the right kind of person to go and bayonet people.
~ Kelly Murdock

Finding Level II work that is meaningful is the greatest challenge I've ever had.
~ Dell Davidson

It's always oppressed people that are taken advantage of.
~ Mike Little

We are too low on the food chain to exploit people; all that's left for us is animals!
~ Roseanne Conner

I think we can implement it, but I don't think it will look anything like what's written in the FSSR.
~ Barbara Hill

There's a sound for every mood.
~ Dave Anderson

Is the speed of Bob a universal constant?
~ Kelly Murdock

Nothing can go faster than the speed of Bob.
~ Roger Corson

If this was the real world there would be about seventy percent attrition!
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

When you're surrounded by incompetence you can develop an attitude problem very easily.
~ Roger Corson

We had to play "Wink 'Um" at school today and we had to wink at boys; it was so disgusting!
~ Mallory Corson

Yes we have to worry about the economy. But in doing so we also need to worry about the engine that pulls that economy - technology.
~ Bonnie Dunbar, astronaut

The road to the moon is not a road to nowhere; it is a road to infinity.
~ Mike Little

A wingless Orbiter is not gonna fly.
~ Kelly Murdock

Doesn't Brandt know that he can't start a fight until Mike gets here?
~ Kelly Murdock

In Russia, you don't have to be a nerd to play chess in the park.
~ Mike Little

There's a fine line between healthy self-esteem and delusions of grandeur.
~ Cynthia Griffin

This left handed [quaternion] thing is like David Koresh is to religion.
~ Dave Anderson

Duress always brings out eloquence.
~ Brandt Rhodes

If the number of imaginary sheep in this world remains a matter of guesswork, who is richer or poorer for it?
~ Dorothy Parker

The scientist explores what is, the engineer creates what has not been.
~ Theodore Von Karman

You can be young, or you can be wise, but not both!
~ Nanci Brasket

The problem with 'they' on this program is we never know who 'they' are.
~ Kevin Morrill

Some people think that the Space Station program is just a hood ornament for the country.
~ Dave Anderson

Middle age is when you know all the answers and nobody ever asks you the questions.
~ anonymous

I think we'd get a lot more done if we had less to do.
~ Mike Little

America now has a political soap opera masquerading as a space program.
~ Editor of Popular Science, August 1993 issue

The best way for men and women to live together is for them to spend a lot of time apart.
~ Malaita wisdom

Burglaries have become so frequent, is it quite safe to leave the Golden Rule out over night?
~ Emily Dickinson

If it hoses, so be it.
~ Daniel (12:13) Nguyen

I like to pick on Mike; picking on Mike is like pouring water on a duck.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

Let's not confuse reality with the needs of the few.
~ Jim Purcell

The light at the end of the tunnel is a train.
~ Butch Stegall

Real men swallow their snuff
~ Brandt Rhodes

On approach to assigned target of the day, formation lead ship took a direct hit from an 88 mm round in the main upper fuselage fuel tank. The main wing spars buckled upon ignition of the fuel with complete wing failure. No parachutes were seen, no crew survived. Aircraft 501215 which had flown many missions and survived many perils is stricken from the record.
Other formations reporting heavy casualties on the bomb run.
~ Brandt Rhodes announcing his layoff notice

I'd like a job where people love me - preferably not in the porno business.
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist

That piece of junk the Russians have in orbit is nothing compared to what we have charts for.
~ Dave Anderson

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
~ Abraham Lincoln

To argue for space [exploration] is a poetic endeavor, not a logical one.
~ Mike Little

It's real easy to be done when you don't know what you are doing.
~ Bob Byington

"Andy, Andy! Wake up! You were having a bad dream."
"Mom, you wouldn't believe it; I was dreaming that I was a rocket scientist working on the Space Station. It was horrible."
"Don't worry; everything will be okay."
~ Andrew T. McGuire, Rocket Scientist


When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail.
~ Abraham Maslow

There are two major products to come out of Berekley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
~ anon.

Never, EVER, date a woman you can hear ticking.
~ Gabby's evil ex-boyfriend.

Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
~ anon.

Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before.
~ Steve Wright

Kalman filtering is a technique for minimizing the difference between where you want to be and where you aren't by making redundant measurements between another place where you aren't and where you think you are.
~ The Charles Draper Laboratory

Someday, I've got to stop procrastinating.
~ Dave Anderson

Sloppy writing is a confession of disrespect for the reader.
~ anon.

Progress might have been all right once, but it's gone on too long.
~ Ogden Nash

Of course, E=mc^2 may just be a local phenomenon.
~ Albert Einstein

I used to get stars for not doing something bad. Absence of bad, in my case, is something good.
~ Butch Stegall

This program's getting crazier by the minute; I wish I had 85 points.
~ Ron Simpson

A fool with a tool is still a fool.
~ Heiko Jones

This is a table that weighs 4,000 pounds; it doesn't move.
~ Susan Gomez

It's amazing how much it simplifies your life to have your whole hard disk wiped clean.
~ Mike Little

He was a creationist-for God's sake!
~ Mike Little

It's ironic how ironic irony can be.
~ Mike Little

There are things in the world a man does well to carry to extremes.
~Cyrano de Bergerac

The test site will be where the survey marker is and it is marked with a red 'N' or 'Z', depending on how you look at it.
~ Susan Gomez

It's a rocky road to the moon, despite the vacuum.
~ Greg Bennett

I daydream about the night all the lawyers are killed.
~ Greg Bennett

Around here we play fast and loose with our Central Limit Theorem
~ Russell Carpenter

You don't live longer by eating well; it just seems like it because it's so boring.
~ Ron Simpson

I think I've figured out love; it's a chemical reaction.
~ Jeff Patterson

Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
~ anon.

We're approaching the time when we need to make some decisions.
~ John Kelly

I've figured out that I'm tall from the butt up.
~ Mike Little
You could also say that you are butt-up tall.
~ Dell Davidson

We should start a pessimists club.
~ Jeff Patterson

If you're going to shove it down someone's throat, you need to make it taste good.
~ Bob Gottlieb

The first law of holes is: when you find yourself in one stop digging.
~ Bob Gottlieb

A hotel is a place that keeps the manufacturers of 25-watt bulbs in business.
~ Shelley Berman

I'm desperately trying to figure out why kamikaze pilots wore helmets.
~ Dave Edison

The Human Race is at war. Our enemy is ignorance, pure and simple.
~ John Young

Why do we say 'www'? Do you realize how many syllables that is?
~ Greg Bennett

Is there another word for synonym?
~ anon.

The only thing worse than a project that doesn't get off the ground is one that comes falling back to earth.
~ anon.

Our software architecture is a function of our cubicle layout.
~ PJ Duke

If it ain't broke; don't break it.
~ Dave Anderson

It's never too late to do the right thing.
~ Roger Corson

You have to minimize the distance between associated concerns.
~ Mike Little

Thank God for l'Hôpital's rule.
~ Kim Little

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.
~ Albert Einstein

If you think advertising doesn't work - consider the millions of Americans who now think that yogurt tastes good.
~ Joe Whitley, management consultant

The spell-checker is hear two stay.
~ anon.

When I found the skull in the woods, the first thing I did was call the police. But then I got curious about it. I picked it up, and started wondering who this person was, and why he had deer horns.
~ Jack Handy

I'd rather use a Pee Sea than Matrix X.
~ Roger Corson

Working here is like cooking scrambled eggs on a charcoal grill.
~ Mike Begley

I feel intrinsically worthwhile.
~ Mike Little

It's weird that the only thing we have in common is someone we've never met!
~ Eric

Denial is how an optimist keeps from becoming a pessimist.
~ anon.

When you're tilting at windmills, it doesn't matter which ones you tilt at.
~ Mike Little

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
~ Albert Einstein

Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
~ anon.

It's better to be lucky than good.
~ Laura Engler

The oblique obtrusiveness of obtuse remarks on obliquity obligate me to obtrude, not to objurgate. Nonetheless, your obloquy of this obdurate subject obfuscates. Objectively the obvious is my obsessional oblation - surely this is not an obscenity. Further, being oblivious to obscurity ensures oblivion is the obverse. But, yea, ye wouldst introduce "uncertainty", an obstructive obstacle in my understanding. I have been made to feel obsolete, but still yet obstinately obstreperous. [signed] Your obeisant observer of obliquity,
~ Bill Graham

I did not buy a computer to learn computing anymore than I bought a refrigerator to learn refrigeration.
~ Dick Rumage

That guy pumped a lot of negative energy.
~ Jim Pendergrass

The problem is that our code almost always works.
~ Mike Little

Success never happens.
~ Jim Pendergrass

I'd never traveled with mousse before.
~ Laura Engler

If you want to make your software idiot proof, you should hire idiots to test it.
~ Roger Corson

My wife likes me the way I am; I'm a chick repellant..
~ Alan Asp

I would be such a great multimillionaire.
~ Mike Little

I don't think I'll ever figure out the fine line between being heroes and being dogs hunted in the street.
~ Dave Anderson

I'm prone to doing dorky stuff.
~ Susan Gomez

I admire us.
~ Jeff Patterson

My opinion is better than anyone elses because my opinion is correct.
~ Mike Little

It's real easy to diet. There's only one rule: if it tastes good, spit it out.
~ Mike Little

I'm thinking out loud and I shouldn't be.
~ Butch Stegall

Don't they understand we're trying to troubleshoot? We found some trouble, now we're gonna shoot it!
~ Chad Rowe

I was supposed to go to ISIL this time, but fortunately I was in the hospital instead.
~ Jim Ness

My son is a business major and he doesn't even do his own taxes.
~ Lou Zyla

Susan, this is real life; this isn't a PhD experiment.
~ Rick Loffi

I'm not that unflappable.
~ Fred Cerkin

It's kind of hard to do 1000 things right every day.
~ Tim Woeste

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
~ Douglas Adams

Are Chinese midgets smaller than Caucasian midgets?
~ Richard Burt

[The SIGI] isn't a handheld GPS for hiking the galaxy.
~ Tom Russell

You're making fun of me without doing the research.
~ Mike Little

I love 1553.
~ Jennifer Pelletier

Minimize the ad hocness.
~ Dave Barrows

The end justifies the meme.
~ Nathan Harris

What's the ballistic coefficient of a pop singer?
~ Nathan Harris

We get meeting notices; those are not invitations.
~ Jeff Patterson

I'm good at drinking water.
~ Mike Little

I made a mistake once.
~ Mike Little

The man with no name is a misnomer.
~ Mike Little

Anything that grows sideways is a weed.
~ Sophia Bright

I'm not good at drinking water.
~ Sophia Bright

Has somebody been kissing my arm?
~ Mike Little

It's not nice to shoot the messenger but it's okay to shoot the devil's advocate.
~ Mike Little

You shouldn't be so open minded that your brains fall out.
~ Mike Little

I don't like the word untestable.
~ Joanne Salazar

I shall not bleat.
~ Sophia Bright

You don't say chick peas; you say woman peas.
~ Mike Begley

I had practice working for people who don't care about quality, and I learned how to sneak it in.
~ Robert Altman

Who are these two women, Ivy and Vee?
~ Bill Graham

Michael Vaughn: Where do they keep the nation's gold?
Stuart Randolph: That would be at Fort Knox.
Michael Vaughn: Do you know where they keep the nation's silver?
Stuart Randolph: In the drawer, in the kitchen.

People who actually have brain cells are an oppressed minority.
~ anon.

Nathan Harris: Okay, I'll be the first to admit it. I'm an idiot.
Amber Rist: I don't think you would be the first.

The purpose of change control boards is to prevent changes.
~ Clarence Howard

E-mail's good; it's asynchronous.
~ Ike Stoddard

Sometimes in our stressful environment we confuse our dreams with reality.
~ Stuart Randolf

Process is the hole not the donut.
~ Roger Corson

Process impedes progress.
~ Roger Corson

I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I thought, "What part of my body is telling me that?"
~ Emo Philips

One trend that bothers me is the glorification of stupidity, that it's all right not to know anything.
~ Carl Sagan

The space station has been around the Earth 50,000 times. It's not exploring space.
~ astronaut Kathryn Thornton

'Successful' people take more out of life than they put into it, 'people of value' put more into life than they take out of it.
~ Albert Einstein