On Learning to Be a Captain:
“I've been asked many times, "flying is one thing, but how do you learn to be a captain?" For me it was easy; I paid attention to Tom and his contemporaries who ran a good cockpit, allowed their FO's to participate in decision making and never really got too excited about anything. I've seen the other side of the coin too and flown with captains who where verbose, raised their voices often, needed to throw their weight around and acted as though everything was monumental. Through keen observation however, I learned that the minute these fellows raised their voice and said "I'm the captain," they lost their command authority. Sound decision making, quiet leadership and sticking to your guns always wins the day. You should never have to remind someone that you're the captain. “
-Anonymous
On Great Captains:
• “They don’t scream, shout, and run when things are difficult. They have the quiet, confidence-exuding quality of patience and self-control when everything around them is coming apart,”
-TWA Capt. Bob Buck(ret.)
On Making Mistakes:
“Rule two: This is a two-man, or to be more politically correct, a two-person aircraft. The simple truth is that we're both going to miss things, like you just did when you didn't put the pressurization back into auto after testing it a moment ago. The rule here is: Whoever gets to it first gets to it first. No lectures, no dirty looks, no NTSB hearings. If you see I missed it, just fix it”.
-Retired Delta Captain
These are just a few samples of a collection of great quotes I keep. I thought they would add to the thread.