- Engineering or technology is the making of things that did not previously exist, whereas science is the discovering of things that have long existed.- David Billington
- The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.- Leonardo da Vinci
- First rule of engineering; beware prototypes. Along with, avoid anything made by an engineer who doesn’t have all his own fingers.- Simon R. Green
- Engineers … are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one’s own work but also to have one’s work checked and to be able to check the work of others.- Henry Petroski
I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.- Elon Musk
- The problem in this business isn’t to keep people from stealing your ideas; it’s making them steal your ideas!- Howard Aiken
- Go for civil engineering, because civil engineering is the branch of engineering which teaches you the most about managing people. Managing people is a skill which is very, very useful and applies almost regardless of what you do.- Sir John Harvey Jones
- I was originally supposed to become an engineer but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.- Albert Einstein
- An engineer is someone who is good with figures, but doesn’t have the personality of an accountant. An Arts graduate’s view of engineers
Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world.- Isaac Asimov
- Engineering refers to the practice of organizing the design and construction [and, I would add operation] of any artifice which transforms the physical world around us to meet some recognized need.- G.F.C.Rogers
- Manufacturing is more than just putting parts together. It’s coming up with ideas, testing principles and perfecting the engineering as well as final assembly.- James Dyson
- There can be little doubt that in many ways the story of bridge building is the story of civilisation. By it we can readily measure an important part of a people’s progress.- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- When engineers and quantity surveyors discuss aesthetics and architects study what cranes do we are on the right road.- Ove Arup
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?- Gustave Eiffel
- It is a great profession. There is the satisfaction of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer’s high privilege.- Herbert Hoover
- . The engineer has been, and is, a maker of history.- James Kip Finch
- The story of civilisation is, in a sense, the story of engineering – that long and arduous struggle to make the forces of nature work for man’s good.- Lyon Sprague DeCamp
- When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong- R. Buckminster Fuller
You see, my ambition was not to confound the engineering world but simply to create a beautiful piece of art.- Kit Williams
- . Engineers have more words for screwing up than the Inuit have words for snow.- Pierce Nichols
- A theory may be so rich in descriptive possibilities that it can be made to fit any data.- Phillip Johnson-Laird
- Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily. They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you’ll have an engineer for life.- Bruce Dickinson
- Engineers have more words for screwing up than the Inuit have words for snow.- Pierce Nichols
One man’s magic is another man’s engineering. Supernatural is a null word.- Robert A. Heinlein
- The engineer is a mediator between the philosopher and the working mechanic and, like an interpreter between two foreigners must understand the language of both, hence the absolute necessity of possessing both practical and theoretical knowledge.- Henry Palmer
- Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been. -Theodore von Karman
- There is no demand for women engineers, as such, as there are for women doctors; but there’s always a demand for anyone who can do a good piece of work. – Edith Clarke
- Engineering is the science of economy, of conserving energy, kinetic and potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is the business of engineering to utilise this energy to the best advantage, so that there may be the least possible waste.- William A. Smith
