19th-century Civil Engineer Quotes

George B. McClellan

William John Macquorn Rankine

Octave Chanute

John Monash

John Alexander Low Waddell

Arthur M. Wellington

John B. Jervis

To define it rudely but not inaptly, [engineering] is the art of doing that well with one dollar which any bungler can do with two after a fashion.

Arthur M. Wellington

The operating management, providing as it does for the care of near thirty thousand miles of railway, is far more important than that for construction in which there is comparatively little doing.

A party of astronomers went measuring of the earth, And forty million meters they took to be its girth; Five hundred million inches, though, go through from pole to pole; So lets stick to inches, feet, and yards, and the good old three-foot rule.

William John Macquorn Rankine

Let us hope that the advent of a successful flying machine, now only dimly foreseen and nevertheless thought to be possible, will bring nothing but good into the world; that it shall abridge distance, make all parts of the globe accessible, bring men into closer relation with each other, advance civilization, and hasten the promised era in which there shall be nothing but peace and goodwill among all men.

It is not given to our weak intellects to understand the steps of Providence as they occur: we comprehend them only as we look back upon them in the far-distant past.

George B. McClellan

Not lip service, nor obsequious homage to superiors, nor servile observance of forms and customs, nor a suppression of individuality,... the Australian army is proof that individualism is the best and not the worst foundation upon which to build up collective discipline.

Mathematics higher than the calculus is of small value to the engineer, except possibly as a training for the mind...

John Alexander Low Waddell

It is quite possible that the truest and most eloquent art is a successful fusion of both the visible and visionary worlds, each enhancing and reinforcing the other.

If I had my way... there wouldn't be a single lion or tiger in captivity anywhere in the world. They never take to it. They're never happy. They never settle down... You can see it in their eyes...