Professions & Roles: Engineer Quotes

Explore a curated selection of engineer quotes that celebrate analytical thinking, creativity, and the craft of building reliable systems. These lines highlight persistence, precision, and collaboration, offering insight into how engineers turn constraints into solutions. Whether you are in civil, mechanical, electrical, or software disciplines, the perspectives collected here encourage practical optimism and continuous learning. Find concise inspiration for projects, mentoring, and team communication, with memorable words from pioneers and contemporary voices.

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"Normal people... believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet"

Scott Adams, Cartoonist

Scott Adams

"Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems"

Scott Adams, Cartoonist

Scott Adams

"I wanted to further my education, so I went on to get a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and came back and served about ten years in the Canadian Navy as what we call a combat systems engineer"

Marc Garneau, Astronaut

Marc Garneau

"I'll be the person using the shuttle robotic arm"

Linda M. Godwin, Astronaut

Linda M. Godwin

"To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there's no such thing as perfect"

Alexander Calder, Sculptor

"The engineer, and more generally the designer, is concerned with how things ought to be - how they ought to be in order to attain goals, and to function"

Herbert Simon, Scientist

Herbert Simon

"From here, it becomes an engineering problem; the engineer considers the ground motion that will occur and evaluates the requirements of the proposed structure in the light of the local foundation conditions"

Charles Francis Richter, Scientist

"I went to military college in Canada and graduated as an officer in the Navy but also as an engineer"

Marc Garneau, Astronaut

Marc Garneau

"And now for Return to Flight, I'm chief of robotics working in the astronaut office in Houston, as a Canadian"

Chris Hadfield, Astronaut

Chris Hadfield

"A good engineer thinks in reverse and asks himself about the stylistic consequences of the components and systems he proposes"

Helmut Jahn, Architect

"When you design it, think how you would feel if you had to fly it! Safety first!"

Donald Wills Douglas, Aviator

Donald Wills Douglas

"One has to look out for engineers - they begin with sewing machines and end up with the atomic bomb"

Marcel Pagnol, Dramatist

"It's true that the original idea was mine, but what you see today is the work of probably tens of thousands of the world's best engineers, all concentrating on improving the product, reducing the cost, things of that sort"

Jack Kilby, Scientist

"I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed in the construction of bridges lest the progress of improvement tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as law the prejudices or errors of today"

Isambard K. Brunel, Inventor

"We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building"

Orville Wright, Inventor

Orville Wright

"Nowhere has specialization penetrated so deeply into the building professions as North America"

Arthur Erickson, Architect

Arthur Erickson

"My whole life had been designing computers I could never build"

Steve Wozniak, Businessman

Steve Wozniak

"I think one problem we've had is that people who are smart and creative and innovative as engineers went into financial engineering"

Walter Isaacson, Writer

"There are a lot of dedicated people out there that don't get the recognition that we get, but they're as important as the people that are sitting in the vehicle"

Mark Kelly, Musician

"I was a fixer, a builder - an inventor - ever since I can remember"

Tom Scholz, Musician

"An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board, and a wrecking bar at the site"

Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

Frank Lloyd Wright

"A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist"

R. Buckminster Fuller, Inventor

R. Buckminster Fuller

"Let architects sing of aesthetics that bring Rich clients in hordes to their knees; Just give me a home, in a great circle dome Where stresses and strains are at ease"

R. Buckminster Fuller, Inventor

R. Buckminster Fuller

"The kind of event on a conveyor belt that causes a fire occurs in a variety of industrial environments, not uniquely in coal environments"

Richard Price, Writer

Richard Price

"Be able to read blueprints, diagrams, floorplans, and other diagrams used in the construction process"

Marilyn vos Savant, Author

Marilyn vos Savant

"With twelve horse power at our command, we considered that we could permit the weight of the machine with operator to rise to 750 or 800 pounds, and still have as much surplus power as we had originally allowed for in the first estimate of 550 pounds"

Orville Wright, Inventor

Orville Wright

"When the motor was completed and tested, we found that it would develop 16 horse power for a few seconds, but that the power rapidly dropped till, at the end of a minute, it was only 12 horse power"

Orville Wright, Inventor

Orville Wright

"The ability to do this so quickly was largely due to the enthusiastic and efficient services of Mr. C.E. Taylor, who did all the machine work in our shop for the first as well as the succeeding experimental machines"

Orville Wright, Inventor

Orville Wright

"Our engineering departments build freeways which destroy a city or a landscape, in the process"

Arthur Erickson, Architect

Arthur Erickson

"Another hero was Tom Swift, in the books. What he stood for, the freedom, the scientific knowledge and being and engineer gave him the ability to invent solutions to problems. He's always been a hero to me. I buy old Tom Swift books now and read them to my own children"

Steve Wozniak, Businessman

Steve Wozniak

"Emphasis was usually put on the horizontal acceleration factor, for the simple reason that ordinary structures have a built-in safety factor for the vertical component; that is, gravity"

Charles Francis Richter, Scientist

"It is very expensive to achieve high unreliability. It is not uncommon to increase the cost of an item by a factor of ten for each factor of ten degradation accomplished"

Norman Ralph Augustine, Author

"I had a lot of trouble with engineers, because their whole background is learning from a functional point of view, and then learning how to perform that function"

Brian Eno, Musician

Brian Eno

"You have teenagers thinking they're going to make millions as NBA stars when that's not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is"

Dean Kamen, Inventor

Dean Kamen

"I, in fact, have been involved in the construction of and the management of wastewater treatment plants"

Jeff Miller, Politician

Jeff Miller

"I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing"

Donald Norman, Scientist

"It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease than what sort of a disease a patient has"

William Osler, Scientist

"My background is in physics, so I was the mission specialist, who is sort of like the flight engineer on an airplane"

Sally Ride, Astronaut

"I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers... They use my tools"

Robert Moog, Inventor

"My training as an engineer has enabled me to design the stuff, but the reason I do it is not to make music but for the opportunity to work with musicians"

Robert Moog, Inventor

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