The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

1) “And in this fraternity, even though it was military, men were not rated by their outward rank as ensigns, lieutenants, commanders, or whatever. No, herein the world was divided into those who had it and those who did not.”

2) “The figures were averages, and averages applied to those with average stuff.”

3) “A monkey’s gonna make the first flight.”

4) “This phrase ‘Spam in a Can’ became very popular at Edwards as the nickname for Project Mercury.”

5) “‘I’ll tell you what Gordo did at Edwards. He was in engineering.’ The way engineering was pronounced, you would have thought Gordo had been a quartermaster or a drum major or a chaplain.”

6) “Our rockets always blow up and our boys always botch it.”

7) “Since the flight would last only fifteen minutes, it had never occurred to anybody to include a urine receptacle.”

8) “After the capsule splashed down, Powers had quoted, or seemed to have quoted, Shepard as saying everything was ‘A-Okay.'”

9) “‘I was lying there, flat on my back – and it just blew.'” – Gus

10) “July 4 was not the time of year for anyone to be introduced to Houston, Texas, although just what the right time would be was hard to say.”