162 Quotes by James Dyson

When decisions on nuclear power stations and runways are delayed and the government dilly-dallies, people think they aren't important.

When I started off, I was working in a shed behind my house. All I had was a drill, an electric drill. That was the only machine I had.

I imported the first Mac into England in 1984; you know, the beige box. I imported what I think were the first four that came into England. I never opened the instruction manual. That was the best thing about it.

I've obviously used fans - I wouldn't say all my life, because we couldn't afford them when I was young, but from my 20s and onwards we've had to use fans. And I've always loathed them. Everything about them. The way you adjust them, getting them at the angle you want. Carrying them. Cleaning them. The danger of putting your finger in them.

If you didn't have patents, no one would bother to spend money on research and development. But with patents, if someone has a good idea and a competitor can't copy it, then that competitor will have to think of their own way of doing it. So then, instead of just one innovator, you have two or three people trying to do something in a new way.

I think people are realizing that engineering and science are extremely good degrees to get and you'll be very highly paid once you've got them.

[In my home workshop,] generally I'm mending things, which is interesting because you learn a lot about why they broke.

Failure is so much more interesting because you learn from it. That's what we should be teaching children at school, that being successful the first time, there's nothing in it. There's no interest, you learn nothing actually.

As an engineer I'm constantly spotting problems and plotting how to solve them.