- Lieutenant Doug Lee: As far as I'm concerned, a woman is like an elephant. I like to look at them, but I don't want to own one.
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Look, if you had a previous engagement with the lady, don't let me stand in the way. We're just pals.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: Lee, it's sure tough there aren't any women on the Selection Board. You'd be an admiral inside of a year.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: [angrily] I've learned one thing from you - if you pill rollers flew more and gabbed less, you might find something that'd help us.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: [sarcastically] What's your school? The diploma mill of Hoosier State?
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: No, Harvard, Hopkins, Cambridge. I can read and write.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: Very impressive! How'd you happen to offer the Navy so much for so little in return?
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Well. I'm just naturally generous.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: Not to mention your devastating wit!
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: [sardonically] Tim, the doctor here wants a pair of wings so he can visit his ex-patients. See if you can jam his head into a cockpit.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: [nastily] Don't use your surgical touch on me, Doctor. I wanna collect my old age pension!
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Don't worry, you'll be a burden on the taxpayer for many years.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: You're no better at flying than you are with a knife.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: [to novice flyers] Never trust your senses - trust your instrument board!
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: [regarding Lance Rogers] Surly character, isn't he? I'll bet a sample of his blood would show gall, bile, with a good dash of sulfuric acid.
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Just before I put her into that dive, I kept thinking to myself there are two kinds of blackouts. This belt may whip our kind and the sort they're having over London right now.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: [offering Lt. Lee a cigarette] Cigarette, Doctor?
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: [accepting the smoke] Thanks, Doctor.
- Lieutenant Commander Lance Rogers: Doctor, I'm disappointed in my judgment. I'm beginning to like you.
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Doctor, I'm just suffering a similar disillusionment. I'm beginning to suspect you're almost human yourself.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: Don't resign, Tim. I can fit you into a good ground job.
- Tim Griffin: There's no such thing as a good ground job, you know that. I'd go crazy every time a plane flew past.
- John Thomas Anthony: Commander Blake... Sir, I just wanted to thank you for giving me another chance.
- Lieutenant Commander Joe Blake: Don't mention it.
- John Thomas Anthony: It's meant a lot to us to train under a pilot like you, sir.
- John Thomas Anthony: Thanks. Just remember one rule, Anthony. As a pilot, always fight to be on top, and stay there. You can't lick 'em from below.
- John Thomas Anthony: I won't forget *that*, sir.
- [last lines]
- John Thomas Anthony: Lieutenant. Sir, I've been ordered to stay on duty here as an instructor. Anytime you need a guinea pig for future research, I'd like to carry on Commander Blake's work.
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: That'll be fine, Anthony. We'll let you know...
- John Thomas Anthony: [interrupting] And Sir, the pilots would like you to make this hop with us... if you wish.
- Lieutenant Doug Lee: Thanks... thanks. I would like to.
- [Lee and the squadron get suited for the flight wearing the newly developed pressure suits, with Lee placing in his pocket Blake's recognizable cigarette case, which he, opening his cockpit window during flight, ultimately throws out of the plane into the ocean below in Blake's memory]