203 Quotes by Chris Hadfield

It’s good to have a fear of heights. I mean, it’s kind of crazy not to because if you just lean out a little bit and there’s a gust of wind or somebody bumps you or something and you fall, you’re splat.

Our training pushes us to develop a new set of instincts: instead of reacting to danger with a fight-or-flight adrenaline rush, we’re trained to respond unemotionally by immediately prioritizing threats and methodically seeking to defuse them. We go from wanting to bolt for the exit to wanting to engage and understand what’s going wrong, then fix.

There’s nothing more important than what you’re doing right now.

It’s like being a newborn, this sudden sensory overload of noise, color, smells and gravity after months of quietly floating, encased in relative calm and isolation. No wonder babies cry in protest when they’re born.

If I’d defined success very narrowly, limiting it to peak, high-visibility experiences, I would have felt very unsuccessful and unhappy during those years. 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.

Early success is a terrible teacher.

Sharpie – the preferred writing utensil on orbit since you can hold it any which way and it still works.

I’m really looking forward to it, if you can imagine floating weightless, watching the world pour by through the big bay window of the space station playing a guitar; just a tremendous place to think about where we are in history.

Astronauts are taught that the best way to reduce stress is to sweat the small stuff.