Engineering Quotes - Page 7

• When you want to know how things really work, study them when they're coming apart.

  William Gibson

  Design, Want, Study

  William Gibson (2010). “Zero History”, p.183, Penguin

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• There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

  Tony Hoare

  Witty, Humorous, Simple

  "The Emperor's Old Clothes". Communications of the ACM 24 (2), (pp. 75-83), February 1981.

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• One man's magic is another man's gluey torture session.

  Jackie Earle Haley

  Men, Magic, Null

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• Knowing there is a structure, hidden or felt, to the random gives pleasure.

  Cecil Balmond

  Knowing, Giving, Pleasure

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• The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at and repair.

  Douglas Adams

  Funny, Differences, Statistics

  Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.691, Pan Macmillan

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• The best way to predict the future is to create it.

  Peter Drucker

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

  Alan Kay

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Walter Isaacson (2011). “Steve Jobs”, p.95, Simon and Schuster

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• The best way to predict the future is to study the past, or prognosticate.

  Robert Kiyosaki

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Twitter post from Jan 30, 2017

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• Can one think that because we are engineers, beauty does not preoccupy us or that we do not try to build beautiful, as well as solid and long lasting structures? Aren't the genuine functions of strength always in keeping with unwritten conditions of harmony? ... Besides, there is an attraction, a special charm in the colossal to which ordinary theories of art do not apply.

  Gustave Eiffel

  Beautiful, Art, Science

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• I think we can question whether degrees are antediluvian. Online learning has flexibility. Why not master courses in energy, writing, communications, and engineering and get a credential?

  Anant Agarwal

  Communication, Writing, Thinking

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• In fact, the science of thermodynamics began with an analysis, by the great engineer Sadi Carnot, of the problem of how to build the best and most efficient engine, and this constitutes one of the few famous cases in which engineering has contributed to fundamental physical theory. Another example that comes to mind is the more recent analysis of information theory by Claude Shannon. These two analyses, incidentally, turn out to be closely related.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Two, Mind, Example

  "The Feynman Lectures on Physics". Physics textbook by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands, volume I; lecture 44, "The Laws of Thermodynamics"; section 44-1, "Heat engines; the first law"; p. 44-2, 1964.

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• Engineering is the closest thing to magic that exists in the world.

  Elon Musk

  Magic, World, Closest

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• To define it rudely but not ineptly, engineering is the art of doing for 10 shillings what any fool can do for a pound

  Duke of Wellington

  Art, Fool, Pounds

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• Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.

  Henry Petroski

  Achieve, Function, Avoiding

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• I have long aspired to make our company a noble prototype of industry, penetrating in science, reliable in engineering, creative in aesthetics and wholesomely prosperous in economics.

  Edwin Land

  Science, Long, Creative

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• The reason our country looks the way it does is through social engineering that distinctly benefits suburban communities, exurban communities, and often white residents. And we are socially engineered in such a way as to, often unconsciously and unintentionally, but sometimes intentionally, perpetuate this divisive inequality.

  Richard Benjamin

  Country, White, Community

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• We may discover resources on the moon or Mars that will boggle the imagination, that will test our limits to dream. And the fascination generated by further exploration will inspire our young people to study math, and science, and engineering and create a new generation of innovators and pioneers.

  George W. Bush

  Dream, Math, Science

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• Engineering is a jeans and hoodie culture, and sales is more formal.

  Susan Wojcicki

  Jeans, Culture, Formal

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• An undertaking of great magnitude and importance, the successful accomplishment of which, in so comparatively short a period, notwithstanding the unheard of unestimable difficulties and impediments which had to be encountered and surmounted, in an almost unexplored and uninhabited wilderness . . . evinced on your part a moral courage and an undaunted spirit and combination of science and management equally exciting our admiration and deserving our praise.

  John By

  Successful, Accomplishment, Moral

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• The first principle of architectural beauty is that the essential lines of a construction be determined by a perfect appropriateness to its use.

  Gustave Eiffel

  Science, Perfect, Principles

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• Happiness is German engineering, Italian cooking, and Belgian chocolate.

  Patricia Briggs

  Italian, Cooking, Chocolate

  Patricia Briggs (2006). “Moon Called”, p.159, Penguin

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• I have succeeded in getting my actual work down to thirty minutes a day. That leaves me eighteen hours for engineering.

  Charles Proteus Steinmetz

  Hours, Thirty, Minutes

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• I don't know why I always liked aerospace engineering. I was in the 10th grade when I figured that's what I wanted to do.

  Kalpana Chawla

  Aerospace, Grades, Wanted

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• I think of it as a good opportunity to let, in particular, school kids know that this job and other interesting jobs in science and engineering are open to anyone who works hard in school and gets a good education and studies math and science. And that it's not just for a select group of people.

  Ellen Ochoa

  Jobs, Hard Work, School

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• The central activity of engineering, as distinguished from science, is the design of new devices, processes and systems.

  Myron Tribus

  Design, Process, Devices

  Myron Tribus (2016). “Rational Descriptions, Decisions and Designs: Pergamon Unified Engineering Series”, p.15, Elsevier

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