Henry Petroski quotes

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure. (Henry Petroski)
I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to measure the calculated result, it is a meaningless number. View quote
Henry Petroski
Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new design or design process is suggestive of what went wrong in the case study. View quote
Henry Petroski
Design is nothing if not decision making. View quote
Henry Petroski
Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures. View quote
Henry Petroski
All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations. View quote
Henry Petroski
The same aspirations to celebrate and uplift the spirit that drove the Egyptians to build the pyramids are still driving us. The things we're doing differ only in magnitude. View quote
Henry Petroski
As engineers, we were going to be in a position to change the world - not just study it. View quote
Henry Petroski
Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing. View quote
Henry Petroski
Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail. View quote
Henry Petroski
There's so much written about the Titanic, and it's hard to separate what's fact and what's fiction. My understanding is that the way the Titanic was designed, the emphasis was placed on surviving a head-on collision. (Henry Petroski)
We can't simply blame the engineers when things go wrong because, no matter how well they plan, things don't always go according to plan. View quote
Henry Petroski