13 Quotes by William Langewiesche

Some think of Islam as an expedient jobs program that moves the female half of the population out of the way.

Do not regret the passing of the camel and the caravan. The Sahara has changed, but it remains a desert without compromise, the world in its extreme. There is no place as dry and hot and hostile.

Do not regret the passing if the camel and the caravan. The Sahara has changed, but it remains a desert without compromise, the world in its extreme. There is no place as dry and hot and hostile.

You should not see the desert simply as some faraway place of little rain. There are many forms of thirst.

The mastery of the turn is the story of how aviation became practical as a means of transportation. It is the story of how the world became small.

The site roared twenty-four hours a day for nine full months and beyond. From autumn through winter and into spring the crews labored in twelve-hour shifts, got some sleep, and came back for more. The enormous scale of their workplace is difficult to convey.

Nowhere can a person find greater solitude than alone in flight

I sometimes still go out hunting for bad weather, flying low in simple airplanes to explore the inner reaches of the clouds. Less experienced pilots occasionally join me, not to learn formal lessons about weather flying, but with a more advanced purpose in mind - to accompany me in the slow accumulation of experience through circumstances that never repeat in a place that defies mastery.

So much of who we are is where we have been.