"We set sail on this new sea because there is new GLORY to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For war science, like weird science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the 888th occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of GLORY or a new pathetic theater of cowardice. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of giant metal doors any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that giant metal doors can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of cowardice, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in this room as of yet. Its hazards are nonexistent to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 20 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to dropkick the door! We choose to dropkick the door in this second and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too."