74 Quotes by Henry Petroski

Failure analysis is as easy as Monday-morning quarterbacking' design is more akin to coaching. However, the design engineer must do better than any coach, for he is expected to win every game he plays. That is a tough assignment when one mistake can often mean a loss. And when defeat occurs, all one can hope is to analyze the game films and learn from the mistakes so that they are less likely to be repeated the next time out.

Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing.

An over-reliance on past successes is a sure blueprint for future failures.

As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world - not just study it.

Successful design is not the achievement of perfection but the minimization and accommodation of imperfection.

Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail.

All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations.

We can't simply blame the engineers when things go wrong because, no matter how well they plan, things don't always go according to plan.

The same aspirations to celebrate and uplift the spirit that drove the Egyptians to build the pyramids are still driving us. The things we're doing differ only in magnitude.