Henry Petroski Quotes

I liked the challenge of designing and building things, figuring out how something works and how to make it better or apply it in a different way.

Engineering is the application of scientific principles toward practical ends. If the engineering isn't practical, it's bad engineering.

We usually don't have applications in mind. They come later.

I'm not a designer, I'm an inventor.

I'm an inventor.

I liked to work in a shop down in the basement and invent things and build gadgets.

My training and my inclination is to invent.

Design and technology should be the subject where mathematical brainboxes and science whizzkids turn their bright ideas into useful products.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by things large and small. I wanted to know what made my watch tick, my radio play, and my house stand. I wanted to know who invented the bottle cap and who designed the bridge. I guess from early on I wanted to be an engineer.

Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing.

If you write your own tools, you can sort of see new things, design new things.

Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.

Engineering or technology is all about using the power of science to make life better for people, to reduce cost, to improve comfort, to improve productivity, etc.

Ever since I was young I loved making things and being part of the design process.

Engineering stimulates the mind.

A designer is someone who constructs while he thinks, someone for whom planning and making go together.

Tech, in the sense of... putting things together, that goes back beyond memory for me.

For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.

Studying engineering was natural for me; I was always interested in technology and building things.

For Stripe, being inventive is just about applying the right solutions from other areas.

I came up with the Enveloper when I was 20 and it took my dad and me several months to develop the initial concept into a working model.

Manufacturing is finite, but human intellect is infinite. Textile is all about manufacturing, and industries like pharmaceuticals are all about human intellect.

I am an engineer, not just an architect, so I've always been motivated by technique or technology. As soon as technology moves just a little bit, it changes architecture.

I like to think about the future and how things can be done better than they are now. That's what engineers do.

Problem-solving is essential to engineering. Engineers are constantly on the lookout for a better way to do things.