Samuel Florman Quotes


Engineering is the art or science of making practical.

Knowledge gives a wider choice and more anguish.

... the ancient joy of helping the tribe to survive is constantly rekindled in the engineer's heart.

We all have ambivalent feelings toward work ... We try to avoid it and yet we seem to require it for our emotional well-being.

... engineering is a basic instinct in man the expression of which is existentially fulfilling.

... man cannot help but transcend himself as soon as he begins to design and construct.

... it is clear that our survival and the salvaging of our environment are dependent on more technology not less.

There is scarcely a technical issue for which you cannot find expert witnesses of differing opinions.

We recognize that we cannot survive on meditation poems and sunsets. We are restless. We have an irresistible urge to dip our hands into the stuff of the earth and do something with it.

Every technological product has to be designed and its fabrication overseen and this is what engineers DO.

The engineer's power was usually limited to a refusal to endorse a given plan or to the tender of his resignation.