Mae Jemison Quotes

#1. We look at science as something very elite, which only a few people can learn. That's just not true. You just have to start early and give kids a foundation. Kids live up, or down, to expectations.

Mae Jemison

#2. When God made the color purple, God was just showing off.

Mae Jemison

#3. Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.

Mae Jemison

#4. Sometimes people ask me how difficult the astronaut program was, but being in Sierra Leone, being responsible for the health of more than 200 people, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, at age 26 - that prepared me to take on a lot of different challenges.

Mae Jemison

#5. Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations. If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won't exist because you'll have already shut it out ... You can hear other people's wisdom, but you've got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.

Mae Jemison

#6. Sciences provide an understanding of a universal experience, Arts are a universal understanding of a personal experience ... they are both a part of us and a manifestation of the same thing ... the arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity

Mae Jemison

#7. The thing that I have done throughout my life is to do the best job that I can and to be me.

Mae Jemison

#8. Some of the most fun people I know are scientists.

Mae Jemison

#9. What we find is that if you have a goal that is very, very far out, and you approach it in little steps, you start to get there faster. Your mind opens up to the possibilities.

Mae Jemison

#10. I always knew I'd go to space.

Mae Jemison

#11. Some people say they feel very small when they think about space. I felt more expansive, very connected to the universe.

Mae Jemison

#12. I wanted to be a professional dancer for a period of time, and I did a lot of dancing and choreography and got paid for it.

Mae Jemison

#13. My parents were comfortable with me exploring areas that they were not proficient in. Some parents just aren't comfortable with that.

Mae Jemison

#14. I went to school at night in L.A. to brush up on my engineering while I applied to the astronaut program. I really did not know if I would get in. It was the year after the Challenger accident in 1987.

Mae Jemison

#15. Greatness can be captured in one word: lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it.

Mae Jemison

#16. As an astronaut, you have a very defined set of tasks to do. Those tasks may require you to work 60, 70 or 80 hours a week.

Mae Jemison

#17. I stayed in the astronaut program until 1993. People ask me why I left. I thought I had a lot of things to contribute that would be difficult to do if I stayed. I thought I could have a stronger voice as an advocate for space exploration. So I ended up starting my own technology consulting company.

Mae Jemison

#18. Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet

Mae Jemison

#19. I think science fiction helps us think about possibilities, to speculate - it helps us look at our society from a different perspective. It lets us look at our mores, using science as the backdrop, as the game changer.

Mae Jemison

#20. You have the right to be involved. You have something important to contribute, and you have to take the risk to contribute it.

Mae Jemison

#21. Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.

Mae Jemison

#22. The future never just happened. It was created.

Mae Jemison

#23. Science provides an understanding of a universal experience. Arts provide a universal understanding of a personal experience.

Mae Jemison