Engineering Quotes

“The glass is neither half-empty nor half-full. It's simply twice as big as it needs to be.”

“The last 10 percent of performance generates one-third of the cost and two-thirds of the problems.”

“The difference between a tool and a machine is not capable of very precise distinction; nor is it necessary, in a popular explanation of those terms, to limit very strictly their popular acceptation.”

“Low-level programming is good for the programmer's soul.”

“Anyone can build a fast CPU. The trick is to build a fast system.”

“We were certainly concerned about the tiles. We had seen indications that we had lost some tiles on the way to orbit.”

“We were flying a winged vehicle. We had a lot more drag than the capsule boys did.”

“Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a quality that decides between success and failure.”

“Just as a program must be debugged, a specification must be validated.”

“The heart is a stupid little pump.”

“Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.”

“Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them.”

“We are not in the business of building software, we are in the business of solving problems.”

“The Three Gorges project will be a monument to the Chinese people.”

“The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.”

“A good designer must rely on experience, on precise, logic thinking; and on pedantic exactness. No magic will do.”

“The complexity of a software system is an essential property, not an accidental one.”

“I look upon the broad gauge as a great mechanical improvement.”

“Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing.”

“Simplify, then add lightness.”