Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
An over-reliance on past successes is a sure blueprint for future failures. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Relying on nothing but scientific knowledge to produce an engineering solution is to invite frustration at best and failure at worst. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to measure the… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
What is commonly overlooked in using the computer is the fact that the central goal of design is still to obviate failure,… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I employ case studies of failure into my courses, emphasizing that they teach us much more than studies of success. It is… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failures are much more dramatic than successes, and people like drama. I think this is why automobile races draw such crowds. People… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
The paradox is that when we model future designs on past successes, we are inviting failure down the line; when we take… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
“In order to understand how engineers endeavor to insure against such structural, mechanical, and systems failures, and thereby also to understand how… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Any design, whether it's for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Many of the familiar little things that we use every day have typically evolved over a period of time to a state… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
My first book, 'To Engineer Is Human,' was prompted by nonengineer friends asking me why so many technological accidents and failures were… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
When something succeeds, we learn little more from it than that it did succeed. When something fails, however, we are driven to… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Engineers are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable;… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
It is really want, rather than need, that drives the process of technological evolution. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Everything we do is designed, whether we're producing a magazine, a website, or a bridge. Design is really the creative invention that designs everything. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
I employ case studies of failure into my courses, emphasizing that they teach us much more than studies of success. It is not that… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Whether or not science can be applied to that mental construct [i.e. the designed entity] is a matter of availability. If there is body… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Failures are much more dramatic than successes, and people like drama. I think this is why automobile races draw such crowds. People expect spectacular… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by things large and small. I wanted to know what made my watch… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
The space shuttle was designed, at least in part, to broaden our knowledge of the universe. To scientists, the vehicle was a tool; to… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
Because they are so humbled by their creations, engineers are naturally conservative in their expectations of technology. They know that the perfect system is… — Henry Petroski Copy Share Image
![“Whether or not science can be applied to that mental construct [i.e. the designed entity] is a matter of availability. If there is body of scientific knowledge that can be applied, then it would be foolish not to exploit it. However, if there is none, it does not mean that the thing cannot be…” quote by Henry Petroski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/17d/henry-petroski-10198_availability_whether-or-not-science-can-be-applied-to_341822.jpg)
