Wit & Attitude Quote by Charles F. Kettering

Kettering strips “education” of its polite credentials and pins it to performance under pressure. Coming from an inventor who lived in the workshop-and-boardroom world of early 20th-century industry, the line is a quiet shot at the era’s faith in schooling as status. He’s not praising the well-read; he’s praising the reliably decisive. “Knows the right thing to do” frames intelligence as situational judgment, a kind of practical foresight that only reveals itself when a deadline, a failure, or a real cost arrives. The second clause sharpens the blade: sincerity is morally flattering, but it’s not a substitute for competence.

The subtext is managerial and modern: in a system built on complex machines and mass production, good intentions don’t prevent accidents, bad designs, or bankrupt decisions. Kettering’s world valued the person who can diagnose, choose, and act amid uncertainty - the human equivalent of a well-tuned engine. His definition also flatters the experimental mindset: being “educated” isn’t merely knowing facts, it’s knowing what to try next and when to stop.

There’s a mild cynicism in the phrasing, too. By calling the educated man “the fellow,” Kettering punctures elitism; by pairing sincerity with stupidity, he punctures self-exculpation. The line anticipates a culture that rewards confidence and results, but it also warns against confusing earnestness with wisdom - a confusion that still fuels bad policy, bad tech, and bad leadership. Education, in his telling, is accountability dressed as judgment.