Design Quotes

500+ Sourced quotes

The digits beyond the first few decimal places are of no practical or scientific value. Four decimal places are sufficient for the design of the finest engines; ten decimals are sufficient to obtain the circumference of the earth to within a fraction of an inch if the earth were a smooth sphere...

I personally cannot discern a shred of evidence for "[intelligent] design." If 97% of all creatures have gone extinct, some plan isn't working very well!

There are no real coincidences in life for those with faith strong enough to recognize coincidences for what they really are: intricate pieces of the providential design God created for each of our lives.

The business of schools is to design, create, and invent high-quality, intellectually demanding schoolwork that students find engaging.

Phillip C. Schlechty

Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle of purpose.

And thus in all cases it will be found, that although Chance produces irregularities, still the Odds will be infinitely great, that in process of Time, those Irregularities will bear no proportion to the recurrency of that Order which naturally results from Original Design.

Abraham de Moivre

What do I want to express? The subject means little. The arrangement, the design, colour, shape, depth, light, space, mood, movement, balance, not one or all of these fills the bill. There is something additional, a breath that draws your breath into its breathing, a heartbeat that pounds on yours, a recognition of the oneness of all things.

The architecture of change involves the design and construction of new patterns, or the reconceptualization of old ones, to make new, and hopefully more productive, actions possible.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The argument from design stands or falls on whether it can be demonstrated that some aspect of the universe such as its origin or biological life could not have come about naturally. The burden of proof is... on the supernaturalist to demonstrate that something from outside nature must be introduced to explain the data.

Victor J. Stenger

The duty of the engineer is twofold — to design the work, and to see the work done.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Darwinism may be a fine theory in other contexts, but in startups, intelligent design works best.

The Divine glory is an object only worthy of attention; and to display his holy character, was the design of God in creation' as there were no after beings existing antecedent therto, to attract the mind of Jehovah; and we are sure that God is pursing the same thing still, and always will.

We design performance measures to cover-up error. They are called benchmarks. We make decisions based on: Will we be found out? Discovered? Identified as the wrongdoer? Do we really want to have to explain this stuff to someone who spent his or her life in sales or marketing?

If you look at a tree and think of it as a design assignment, it would be like asking you to make something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides habitat for hundreds of species, accrues solar energy's fuel, makes complex sugars and food, changes colors with the seasons, creates microclimates, and self-replicates.

William McDonough

Recently, I have had conversations with a number of people who were attempting their first object-oriented project. Most of these people claimed to be using use cases in their object-oriented analysis and design approaches. However, listening to them describe their projects, it became quite apparent to me that there is a great deal of confusion regarding the definition, context, and use of use cases. This confusion can (and often does) lead to poorly-designed systems.

Edward V. Berard

You need only look around you, replied PHILO, to satisfy yourself with regard to this question. A tree bestows order and organisation on that tree which springs from it, without knowing the order; an animal in the same manner on its offspring; a bird on its nest; and instances of this kind are even more frequent in the world than those of order, which arise from reason and contrivance. To say, that all this order in animals and vegetables proceeds ultimately from design, is begging the question; nor can that great point be ascertained otherwise than by proving, a priori, both that order is, from its nature, inseparably attached to thought; and that it can never of itself, or from original unknown principles, belong to matter.

The history of the castle at Wiśnicz Nowy is enlivened by many legends. Many well-known artists visited the castle in centuries past. Till now, many elements of old architecture (towers, chapel) have survived, together with some details of interior design.

Marek Żukow-Karczewski

Usability is not often thought of as a criterion during the purchasing process. Moreover, unless you actually test a number of units in a realistic environment doing typical tasks, you are not likely to notice the ease or difficulty of use. [...] Do it right there in the store. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or ask stupid questions. Remember, any problems you have are probably the design's fault, not yours.

Delacroix spoke of the Greek coin being built from the center out. Vermeer has painted in this way, according to the principles of mass... How beautifully they are drawn – Vermeer does not just make a leaf and place it in the design, he relates space and leaf. [in the painting of Vermeer: 'Allegory on the New Testament']. That drapery – it is abstract – observe how this shape [a space between a shepherd and the tree] curves around the center space while the tree counter-curves opposite it, cutting an egg shape.... the spaces on the carpet that carry no figuration are, in fact, shapes of vital importance in building the whole..

To-Morrow and To-Morrow, cheat our Youth:
In riper Age, To-Morrow still we cry,
Not thinking, that the present Day we Dye;
Unpractis'd all the Good we had Design'd;
There's No To-Morrow to a Willing Mind.

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea

Many creationists say that it is impossible to understand or believe the Bible unless it is read in the spirit of the holy ghost. In other words, you must already assume its truth before you read it, and you have to read it through filters of faith because it certainly isn't compelling on its own without those blinders on. If it doesn't make sense, then you've got to convince yourself that you must not understand it properly, and you've just got to try to make yourself believe it anyway somehow. That is precisely why creationist faith is deemed 'dogmatic'. But that's also proof by admission that even a literal reading must be interpreted. So its very design is such that the Bible can not be either inerrant or absolute truth.

Viewed holistically, interior design is a travesty of the architectural process and a frightening condemnation of the credulity, helplessness and gullibility of the most formidable consumers – the rich.

The dominant concept in Aristotle's philosophy of nature is his notion of causation.... The final cause states that each substance has an inherent purpose. Thus there must be a purpose or design in the acorn such that it always grows into an oak tree. This aspect of existence is indicated by the word entelechy; this means the purpose that guides things to develop in one way rather than another.

Geoffrey also recognized that the opposite orientations of gut and nervous system posed a problem for his claim that insects and vertebrates represent different versions of the same archetypal animal - and he proposed the first account of the inversion theory to resolve this threat to unification.... Geoffroy pursued the... aim of establishing a "unity of type" that could generate both arthropods and vertebrates from the same basic blueprint.... The single grand design includes a gut in the middle and the main nerve cords somewhere on the periphery.

Stephen Jay Gould

They can fatten me up. They can give me a full body polish, dress me up, and make me beautiful again. They can design dream weapons that come to life in my hands, but they will never again brainwash me into the necessity of using them. I no longer feel allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself.

Suzanne Collins