Best Katherine Johnson Quotes
Katherine Johnson Quotes About Hidden Figures, Racism, Nasa, Motivational, Life & Challenges! Katherine Johnson, one of NASA’s human ‘computers,’ was responsible for the intricate calculations that made it possible for people to fly in space. While she was a natural in the math department, she had to work hard to learn geometry and algebra. When she was 18, Johnson received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and began teaching it to pupils of color. While pursuing a master’s degree in mathematics, she quit graduate school early to have a family and go back to teaching.
When working at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ Langley laboratory in 1952, when she was 34 years old, she heard about opportunities for Black women with mathematical and computational talents. While she was there, she broke a number of racial boundaries, including accessing a restroom that was exclusively meant to be reserved for white women.
In 1961, she helped NASA calculate the country’s first human spaceflight trajectory, ensuring that Alan B. Shepard, Jr., would have a safe journey. Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s momentous Apollo 11 lunar landing was forecast by her calculations in 1969. Although Johnson and a slew of other Black women worked tirelessly for NASA and space exploration, no one was aware of their contributions, unlike the white man astronauts she helped send into orbit.
It wasn’t until the publication of the film Hidden Figures in 2016 that these ladies received widespread attention. Johnson died on February 24, 2020. In her honor, she was honored by NASA with a computational research facility at Langley Research Center named the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility.
Best Katherine Johnson Quotes
1. “Everything was so new – the whole idea of going into space was new and daring. There were no textbooks, so we had to write them.” – Katherine Johnson
2. “John Glenn’s life will long be remembered for his time in space, his courage, and his service to all Americans.” – Katherine Johnson
3. “I felt most proud on the success of the Apollo mission.” – Katherine Johnson
4. “I found what I was looking for at Langley. This was what a research mathematician did. I went to work every day for 33 years happy. Never did I get up and say I don’t want to go to work.” – Katherine Johnson
5. “I liked working with smart people.” – Katherine Johnson
6. “The women did what they were told to do. They didn’t ask questions or take the task any further. I asked questions; I wanted to know why. They got used to me asking questions and being the only woman there.” – Katherine Johnson
7. “There’s nothing to it; I was just doing my job.” – Katherine Johnson
8. “We needed to be assertive as women in those days – assertive and aggressive – and the degree to which we had to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be.” – Katherine Johnson
9. “We had to determine so much. Where you were, where the Moon would be and how fast the astronauts were going.” – Katherine Johnson
10. “I was just excited to have challenging work to do and smart people to work with.” – Katherine Johnson
11. “We always worked as a team. It’s never just one person.” – Katherine Johnson
12. “We put in some long hours at times, and I had three children at home. But they were very responsible, and I had family and friends who helped look after them.” – Katherine Johnson
13. “My colleagues and I were committed to the work. We found different ways to deal with the segregation.” – Katherine Johnson
14. “Let me do it. You tell me when you want it and where you want it to land, and I’ll do it backwards and tell you when to take off.” – Katherine Johnson
15. “I believed I was where I was supposed to be.” – Katherine Johnson
16. “They needed information and I had it, and it didn’t matter that I found it. At the time, it was just a question and an answer.” – Katherine Johnson
17. “I like to work problems. If you do your best, nobody can ask you to do it over again. I never had to repeat what I did.” – Katherine Johnson
18. “In math, you’re either right or you’re wrong.” – Katherine Johnson
19. “We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics.” – Katherine Johnson
20. “Everything is physics and math.” – Katherine Johnson
21. “I see a picture right now that’s not parallel, so I’m going to go straighten it. Things must be in order.” – Katherine Johnson
22. “I like to learn. That’s an art and a science.” – Katherine Johnson
23. “I’m just lucky — the Lord likes me and I like him.” – Katherine Johnson
24. “All jobs are important to somebody. They had to be important to somebody. My theory is, do the best you can all the time. No fooling around.” – Katherine Johnson
25. “We always worked as a team. It’s never just one person.” – Katherine Johnson
