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Top 25 Henry Petroski Quotes (2025 Update)

Henry Petroski Quote: “Failure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation.”

1. “Failure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.”

2. “Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry.”

3. “The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They notice, even if no one else does, the world that is not quite le mot juste, or the hairline crack that blemishes the structure.”

4. “Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They notice, even if no one else does, the world that is not quite le mot juste, or the hairline crack that blemishes the structure.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Form follows failure.”

5. “Form follows failure.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “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.”

6. “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.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Design is nothing if not decision making.”

7. “Design is nothing if not decision making.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “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.”

8. “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.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident often conceals whatever lessons or caveats it might hold for the next generation of engineers.”

9. “A failed structure provides a counterexample to a hypothesis and shows us incontrovertibly what cannot be done, while a structure that stands without incident often conceals whatever lessons or caveats it might hold for the next generation of engineers.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “No one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art. Contrary to their popular characterization as intellectual conservatives, engineers are really among the avant-garde.”

10. “No one wants to learn by mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art. Contrary to their popular characterization as intellectual conservatives, engineers are really among the avant-garde.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art.”

11. “No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “A good judgment is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgment. But to learn from the experience of others requires those who have the experience to share the knowledge with those who follow.”

12. “A good judgment is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgment. But to learn from the experience of others requires those who have the experience to share the knowledge with those who follow.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “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.”

13. “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.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Our expectations for a technology rise with its advancement.”

14. “Our expectations for a technology rise with its advancement.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Some positive persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; But you, with pleasure own your errors past, And make each day a critic on the last. – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism.”

15. “Some positive persisting fops we know, Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so; But you, with pleasure own your errors past, And make each day a critic on the last. – Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures.”

16. “Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.”

17. “The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “The Book of the Heart provides a fresh perspective on the influence of the book as artifact on our language and culture. Reading this book broadens our appreciation of the relationship between things and ideas.”

18. “The Book of the Heart provides a fresh perspective on the influence of the book as artifact on our language and culture. Reading this book broadens our appreciation of the relationship between things and ideas.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “This cartoon scientist wants to look, act, and think like Einstein: casually and comfortably dressed, if not somewhat unkempt and disheveled; unconventional, but in a curiously impish and self-conscious way; irreverent and individualistic, except when it comes to dressing in a nonuniform uniform and championing his specialty.”

19. “This cartoon scientist wants to look, act, and think like Einstein: casually and comfortably dressed, if not somewhat unkempt and disheveled; unconventional, but in a curiously impish and self-conscious way; irreverent and individualistic, except when it comes to dressing in a nonuniform uniform and championing his specialty.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Yet the bookshelf is also conspicuous in its absence. When we enter a living room without books or bookshelves, we wonder if the people in the house do nothing but watch television.”

20. “Yet the bookshelf is also conspicuous in its absence. When we enter a living room without books or bookshelves, we wonder if the people in the house do nothing but watch television.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “It is the process of design, in which diverse parts of the “given-world” of the scientist and the “made-world” of the engineer are reformed and assembled into something the likes of which Nature had not dreamed, that divorces engineering from science and marries it to art.”

21. “It is the process of design, in which diverse parts of the “given-world” of the scientist and the “made-world” of the engineer are reformed and assembled into something the likes of which Nature had not dreamed, that divorces engineering from science and marries it to art.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “That decision falls to scientists, engineers, and managers – with at least the tacit approval of company officers and boards of directors. All complex technology is inseparably coupled to an equally complex team of people and systems of people who should interact with one another as smoothly and with as clear a purpose as a set of well-meshed gears.”

22. “That decision falls to scientists, engineers, and managers – with at least the tacit approval of company officers and boards of directors. All complex technology is inseparably coupled to an equally complex team of people and systems of people who should interact with one another as smoothly and with as clear a purpose as a set of well-meshed gears.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “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.”

23. “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

Henry Petroski Quote: “Failure analysis is as easy as Monday-morning quarterbacking’ design is more akin to coaching. However, the design engineer must do better than any coach, for he is expected to win every game he plays. That is a tough assignment when one mistake can often mean a loss. And when defeat occurs, all one can hope is to analyze the game films and learn from the mistakes so that they are less likely to be repeated the next time out.”

24. “Failure analysis is as easy as Monday-morning quarterbacking’ design is more akin to coaching. However, the design engineer must do better than any coach, for he is expected to win every game he plays. That is a tough assignment when one mistake can often mean a loss. And when defeat occurs, all one can hope is to analyze the game films and learn from the mistakes so that they are less likely to be repeated the next time out.”

— Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski Quote: “Engineers... are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one’s own work but also to have one’s work checked and to be able to check the work of others.”

25. “Engineers... are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgivable; that they catch them is imperative. Thus it is the essence of modern engineering not only to be able to check one’s own work but also to have one’s work checked and to be able to check the work of others.”

— Henry Petroski

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