Charles Lindbergh Quotes in The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Father Hussman: How come I never see you around church? You don't believe?

Charles Lindbergh: Well, yes, I believe. I believe in an instrument panel, a pressure gauge, a compass, things I can see and touch. I can't touch God.

Father Hussman: You're not supposed to! He touches you!

[last lines]

Charles Lindbergh: [narrating] There were 200,000 people there that night. And when we came back home, there were 4 million people waiting.

Charles Lindbergh: [after politely trying to smoke a cigar given to him by an investment banker] The idea of committing suicide never crossed my mind except when I took this cigar.

Charles Lindbergh: Now, I don't propose to sit on a flagpole or swallow goldfish. I'm not a stuntman; I'm a flier.

Charles Lindbergh: Did you wait in the rain all night?

Mirror Girl: Yes.

Charles Lindbergh: Are you from New York

[City]

Charles Lindbergh: ?

Mirror Girl: No.

Charles Lindbergh: Long Island?

Mirror Girl: No. I'm from Philadelphia.

Charles Lindbergh: You came all the way from Philadelphia?

Mirror Girl: I had to. You needed my mirror.

Charles Lindbergh: I take up a compass heading of 65 degrees out of New York, keep correcting the heading every 100 miles.

Benjamin Frank Mahoney, President Ryan Airlines Co.: What happens over the water?

Charles Lindbergh: Over the water I keep watching the waves, see which direction the wind's blowing in, allow for the drift...

Benjamin Frank Mahoney, President Ryan Airlines Co.: And hope the Lord will do the rest.

Charles Lindbergh: No, I never bother the Lord. I'll do the rest.

Benjamin Frank Mahoney, President Ryan Airlines Co.: Might need a little help up there, don't you think?

Charles Lindbergh: No, it will only get in the way.

Charles Lindbergh: [Mentally calculating what navigational error he can expect by the use of dead reckoning] Six miles off course. That's six miles after 200 miles of water. If I held this margin of error, how far off course would I be when I hit Ireland? Let's see, it's 1,900 miles across the Atlantic. So that would... I'd be 60 miles off at Ireland. Well, I'll settle for that. And nothing too wrong with this dead reckoning navigation... except maybe the name.

Father Hussman: [Flying - quite clumsily - in a bi-plane with Lindbergh as his instructor pilot] I've got a special prayer for landings.

Charles Lindbergh: Don't you think you need a little more than that?

Father Hussman: I also have a prayer for takeoffs, for engine trouble, for rough air, all kinds of prayers. Would you like to hear the one for landings? It's out of the Psalms.

Charles Lindbergh: No, thank you, Father.

Father Hussman: Slim, don't you ever pray?

Charles Lindbergh: Well, I don't have to, I *know* how to land.