Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer and spaceflight pioneer. Initially working for Nazi Germany’s rocket development program, von Braun later played a crucial role in the United States’ space exploration efforts. He led the development of the V-2 rocket during World War II, then immigrated to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, a program recruiting German scientists. In the U.S., von Braun worked for NASA, where he became the chief architect of the Saturn V rocket, the vehicle that propelled the Apollo missions to the Moon. His leadership was instrumental in the success of the Apollo program, including the historic Apollo 11 mission that landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Despite controversy surrounding his Nazi past, von Braun’s contributions to space exploration remain significant, and he is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of rocketry and spaceflight.
Wernher von Braun Quotes
01. “We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.”
— Wernher von Braun
02. “Conquering the universe one has to solve two problems: gravity and red tape. We could have mastered gravity”
— Wernher von Braun
03. “Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity”
— Wernher von Braun
04. “Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you give it to a surgeon or a murderer, each will use it differently”
— Wernher von Braun
05. “Everything in space obeys the laws of physics. If you know these laws, and obey them, space will treat you kindly”
— Wernher von Braun
06. “If we continue at this leisurely pace, we will have to pass Russian customs when we land on the moon”
— Wernher von Braun
07. “It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet”
— Wernher von Braun
08. “We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming”
— Wernher von Braun
09. “The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet”
— Wernher von Braun
10. “It takes sixty-five thousand errors before you are qualified to make a rocket”
— Wernher von Braun
11. “I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution”
— Wernher von Braun
12. “Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing”
— Wernher von Braun
13. “The best computer is a man, and it’s the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labour”
— Wernher von Braun
14. “One good test is worth a thousand expert opinions”
— Wernher von Braun
15. “A good engineer gets stale very fast if he doesn’t keep his hands dirty”
— Wernher von Braun
16. “Nothing seems so simple than a utopian vision realised”
— Wernher von Braun
17. “A good engineer gets stale very fast if he doesn’t keep his hands dirty.”
— Wernher von Braun
18. “All one can really leave one’s children is what’s inside their heads. Education, in other words, and not earthly possessions, is the ultimate legacy, the only thing that cannot be taken away.”
— Wernher von Braun
19. “Although I know of no reference to Christ ever commenting on scientific work, I do know that He said ‘Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’
— Wernher von Braun
20. Thus I am certain that, were He among us today, Christ would encourage scientific research as modern man’s most noble striving to comprehend and admire His Father’s handiwork. The universe as revealed through scientific inquiry is the living witness that God has indeed been at work.”
— Wernher von Braun
21. “Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.”
— Wernher von Braun
22. “By the year 2000 we will undoubtedly have a sizable operation on the Moon, we will have achieved a manned Mars landing and it’s entirely possible we will have flown with men to the outer planets.”
— Wernher von Braun
23. “Can a physicist visualize an electron? The electron is materially inconceivable and yet, it is so perfectly known through its effects that we use it to illuminate our cities, guide our airlines through the night skies and take the most accurate measurements. What strange rationale makes some physicists accept the inconceivable electrons as real while refusing to accept the reality of a Designer on the ground that they cannot conceive Him?”
— Wernher von Braun
24. “Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month.”
— Wernher von Braun
25. “Development of the space station is as inevitable as the rising of the sun; man has already poked his nose into space and he is not likely to pull it back. There can be no thought of finishing, for aiming at the stars – both literally and figuratively – is the work of generations, and no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.”
— Wernher von Braun
26. “Don’t tell me that man doesn’t belong out there. Man belongs wherever he wants to go – and he’ll do plenty well when he gets there.”
— Wernher von Braun
27. “Everybody knows what the moon is, everybody knows what this decade is, and everybody can tell a live astronaut who returned from the moon from one who didn’t.”
— Wernher von Braun
28. “For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all.”
— Wernher von Braun
29. “For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like most Lutheran boys. I got a telescope. My mother thought it would make the best gift.”
— Wernher von Braun
30. “Get me a broom. I’ll sweep my own office.”
— Wernher von Braun
31. “I believe in an immortal soul. Science has proved that nothing disintegrates into nothingness. Life and soul, therefore, cannot disintegrate into nothingness, and so are immortal.”
— Wernher von Braun
32. “I believe that the time has arrived for medical investigation of the problems of manned rocket flight, for it will not be the engineering problems but rather the limits of the human frame that will make the final decision as to whether manned space flight will eventually become a reality.”
— Wernher von Braun
33. “I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”
— Wernher von Braun
34. “I have learned to use the word ‘impossible’ with the greatest caution.”
— Wernher von Braun
35. “I only hope that we shall not wait to adopt the program until after our astronomers have reported a new and unsuspected asteroid moving across their fields of vision with menacing speed. At that point it will be too late!”
— Wernher von Braun
36. “I would like simply to point out that the space program has by all standards become America’s greatest generator of new ideas in science and technology.”
— Wernher von Braun
37. “I’m convinced that before the year 2000 is over, the first child will have been born on the moon.”
— Wernher von Braun
38. “If we continue at this leisurly pace, we will have to pass Russian customs when we land on the moon.”
— Wernher von Braun
39. “If we were to start today on an organized and well-supported space program I believe a practical passenger rocket can be built and tested within ten years.”
— Wernher von Braun
40. “In most cases the scientist will be fully aware of the possibility of an abuse of his discoveries, but aside from his innate scientific curiosity he will be motivated by a deep-seated hope and belief that something of value for his fellow man may emerge from his labors.”
— Wernher von Braun
41. “In the future utopia will need to hurry to keep up with reality.”
— Wernher von Braun
42. “In this age of space flight, when we use the modern tools of science to advance into new regions of human activity, the Bible remains in every way an up-to-date book. Our knowledge and use of the laws of nature that enable us to fly to the Moon also enable us to destroy our home planet with the atom bomb. Science itself does not address the question whether we should use the power at our disposal for good or for evil. The guidelines of what we ought to do are furnished in the moral law of God.”
— Wernher von Braun
43. “In this modern world of ours many people seem to think that science has somehow made such religious ideas as immortality untimely or old fashioned. I think science has a real surprise for the skeptics. Science, for instance, tells us that nothing in nature, not even the tiniest particle, can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction. All it knows is transformation. If God applies this fundamental principle to the most minute and insignificant parts of His universe, doesn’t it make sense to assume that He applies it to the masterpiece of His creation, the human soul?”
— Wernher von Braun
44. “It takes sixty-five thousand errors before you are qualified to make a rocket.”
— Wernher von Braun
45. “Looking back, nothing seems so simple than a utopian vision realised.”
— Wernher von Braun
46. “Man is not made for space. But with the help of biologists and medical doctors, he can be prepared and accommodated.”
— Wernher von Braun
47. “My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?”
— Wernher von Braun
48. “My friends they were dancing here in the streets of Huntsville when our first satellite orbited the Earth. They were dancing again when the first Americans landed on the Moon. I’d like to ask you, don’t hang up your dancing slippers.”
— Wernher von Braun
49. “Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me — and continues to teach me —strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death. Nothing disappears without a trace.”
— Wernher von Braun
50. “One good test is worth a thousand expert opinions.”
— Wernher von Braun
51. “One of the most disconcerting issues of our time lies in the fact that modern science, along with miracle drugs and communications satellites, has also produced nuclear bombs. What makes it even worse, science has utterly failed to provide an answer on how to cope with them. As a result, science and scientists have often been blamed for the desperate dilemma in which mankind finds itself today.”
— Wernher von Braun
52. “Our sun is one of a 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living thing in that enormous immensity.”
— Wernher von Braun
53. “Science and religion are not antagonists. On the contrary, they are sisters. While science tries to learn more about the creation, religion tries to better understand the Creator. While through science man tries to harness the forces of nature around him, through religion he tries to harness the force of nature within him.”
— Wernher von Braun
54. “Science does not have a moral dimension. It is like a knife. If you give it to a surgeon or a murderer, each will use it differently.”
— Wernher von Braun
55. “The best computer is a man, and it’s the only one that can be mass-produced by unskilled labor.”
— Wernher von Braun
56. “The body of knowledge is advancing at an absolutely incredible rate, and new tools are constantly being made available to the researcher that were previously not only unavailable, but often not even dreamed of.”
— Wernher von Braun
57. “The first men who set out for Mars had better make sure they leave everything at home in apple-pie order. They won’t get back to earth for more than two and a half years. The difficulties of a trip to mars are formidable. What curious information will these first explorers carry back from Mars? Nobody knows-and its extremely doubtful that anyone now living will ever know. All that can be said with certainty today is this: the trip will be made, and will be made someday.”
— Wernher von Braun
58. “The greatest gain from space travel consists in the extension of our knowledge. In a hundred years this newly won knowledge will pay huge and unexpected dividends.”
— Wernher von Braun
59. “The logistic requirements for a large, elaborate mission to Mars are no greater that those for a minor military operation extending over a limited theatre of war.”
— Wernher von Braun
60. “The rocket will free man from his remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet. It will open to him the gates of heaven.”
— Wernher von Braun
61. “The rocket worked perfectly, except for landing on the wrong planet.”
— Wernher von Braun
62. “The same forces of nature which enable us to fly to the stars, enable us also to destroy our star.”
— Wernher von Braun
63. “There are flying grandfathers. But I intend to be an orbiting grandfather.”
— Wernher von Braun
64. “There is beauty in space, and it is orderly. There is no weather, and there is regularity. It is predictable. Just look at our little Explorer; you can set your clock by it —literally; it is more accurate than your clock. Everything in space obeys the laws of physics. If you know these laws, and obey them, space will treat you kindly.”
— Wernher von Braun
65. “There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program – your tax-dollar will go further.”
— Wernher von Braun
66. “To simply dismiss the concept of God as being unscientific is to violate the very objectivity of science itself.”
— Wernher von Braun
67. “Today we live in a different world because in 1958 Americans accepted the challenge of space and made the required national investment to meet it.”
— Wernher von Braun
68. “We should remember that science exists only because there are people, and its concepts exist only in the minds of men. Behind these concepts lies the reality which is being revealed to us, but only by the grace of God.”
— Wernher von Braun
69. “What we will have attained when Neil Armstrong steps down upon the moon is a completely new step in the evolution of man.”
— Wernher von Braun
70. “You can’t have a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
— Wernher von Braun
71. “Conquering the universe one has to solve two problems: gravity and red tape. We could have mastered gravity.”
— Wernher von Braun
72. “We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.”
— Wernher von Braun
73. “In 1492 Columbus knew less about the far Atlantic than we do about the heavens, yet he chose not to sail with a flotilla of less than three ships. So it is with interplanetary exploration: it must be done on the grand scale.”
— Wernher von Braun
