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“Every mind should be true to itself—should think, investigate and conclude for itself,
Do not wait for the boy to grow up before you begin to treat him as an equal. A proper amount of confidence, and words of encouragement and advice . . . give him to understand that you trust him in many ways, helps to make a man of
him long before he is a man in either stature or years. . . . If a boy finds he can make a few articles with his hands, it tends to make him rely on himself. And the planning that is necessary for the execution of the work is a discipline and an education of great value to him.
Equilibrium was the all-important factor, the brothers understood.
One ship drives east and another drives west With the self-same winds that blow. ’Tis the set of the sails And not the gales Which tells us the way to go. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX, “WINDS OF FATE”
Equilibrium—balance—was exactly what riding a bicycle required and of that he and Orville knew a great deal.
“The man who wishes to keep at the problem long enough to really learn anything positively must not take dangerous risks.
Carelessness and overconfidence are usually more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks.”
As time would show, caution and close attention to all advance preparations were to be the rule for the brothers. They would take risks when necessary, but they were no daredevi...
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“and when they worked, they worked. . . . They had their whole heart and soul in what they were doing.”
One is to get on him and learn by actual practice how each motion and trick may be best met; the other is to sit on a fence and watch the beast a while, and then retire to the house and at leisure figure out the best way of overcoming his jumps and kicks. The latter system is the safest, but the former, on the whole, turns out the larger proportion of good riders.
As he and Orville had no need to say, they knew full well the importance of what they had achieved with their “laboratory work.” They had done it together on their own, paying their own way, as they did everything, and they intended to keep going on their own.
They knew exactly the importance of what they had accomplished.
It wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith.
They were always thinking of the next thing to do; they didn’t waste much time worrying about the past.
Once into the air Orville would write, the ground was “a perfect blur,” but as the plane rose higher the objects below became clearer.
Alert, patient, closely attentive, Wilbur “never rattled,” as his father would say, never lost his confidence.
He could be firm without being dictatorial, disagree without causing offense. Nor was there ever a doubt that when he spoke he knew what he was talking about.
Most importantly, he remained entirely himself, never straying from his direct, unpretentious...
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Don’t go out even for all the officers of the government unless you would go equally if they were absent. Do not let yourself be forced into doing anything before you are ready.
Buist wrote that in the course of a day Wilbur talked quite as much as most men; the difference was his words were to the point.
No, he had not conquered the air, Wilbur remarked to the press as he walked away. “A man who works for the immediate present and its immediate rewards is nothing but a fool.”
“we feel very sad, but it is always easier to deal with things than with men, and no one can direct his life entirely as he would choose.”
“The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power.” Signed Wilbur and Orville Wright, March 12, 1906.
