203 Quotes by Chris Hadfield

Life is just a lot better if you feel you’re having 10 wins a day rather than a win every 10 years or so.

Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become.

No matter how competent or how seasoned, every astronaut is essentially a perpetual student, forever cramming for the next test. It’s not how I envisioned things when I was 9 years old. Then I dreamed of blasting off in a blaze of glory to explore the universe, not sitting in a classroom studying orbital mechanics. In Russian.

I quickly learned that as the ex-whatever, you only get so many golden opportunities to keep your mouth shut, and you should take advantage of every single one.

It’s not enough to shelve your own competitive streak. You have to try, consciously, to help others succeed.

Typically, the last minute is also when you finally get around to doing all the little things you’ve been meaning to do for months: shooting a video tour of the ISS to show friends and family back home, taking photos of crewmates in bizarre, only-in-space poses and, just because you can, peeing upside down.

What I did each day would determine the kind of person I’d become.

Square astronaut, round hole. But somehow, I’d managed to push myself through it, and here was the truly amazing part: along the way, I’d become a good fit. It had only taken 21 years.

Kazakhstan is not easy to get to unless you live in Kyrgyzstan.