Whats Engineering?

Here are are a few quotes, how people defined engineering.


Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change... Engineers operate at the interface between science and society...
-Dean Gordon Brown


Engineering is the art of organizing and directing men and controlling the forces and materials of nature for the benefit of the human race.
-Henry G. Stott, 1907


Engineering is a great profession. There is the satisfaction of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realisation in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings homes to men or women. Then it elevates the standard of living and adds to the comforts of life. This is the engineer's high privilege.
-Herbert Hoover (1874 - 1964)


Engineers participate in the activities which make the resources of nature available in a form beneficial to man and provide systems which will perform optimally and economically.
-L. M. K. Boelter, 1957


The ideal engineer is a composite ... He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems.
-N. W. Dougherty, 1955


Engineering is an activity other than purely manual and physical work which brings about the utilization of the materials and laws of nature for the good of humanity.
-R. E. Hellmund, 1929


Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man.
-Ralph J. Smith


Engineering is the practice of safe and economic application of the scientific laws governing the forces and materials of nature by means of organization, design and construction, for the general benefit of mankind.
-S. E. Lindsay, 1920


The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them into the service of man ... To make contributions of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social age understanding to bring his vision to reality.
-Sir Eric Ashby


Engineering is the professional and systematic application of science to the efficient utilization of natural resources to produce wealth.
-T. J. Hoover and J. C. L. Fish, 1941


Engineering is the science of economy, of conserving the energy, kinetic and potential, provided and stored up by nature for the use of man. It is the business of engineering to utilize this energy to the best advantage, so that there may be the least possible waste.
-William A. Smith, 1908

Quotes by Albert Einstein

"Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish."

"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor."

"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education."

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

"Truth is what stands the test of experience."

"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value."

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."

"If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio

Motivational Quotes

"The Argument from Intimidation is a confession of intellectual impotence."
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, 1964
US (Russian-born) novelist (1905 - 1982)


"It's asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic."
W. Somerset Maugham, 'Of Human Bondage', 1915
English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)


"Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possiblity."
Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine
US actress & television talk show host (1954 - )

Quotes

"Not every thing that counts can be counted, and not every thing that can be counted counts."
- Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton.

"Whole is more than the sum of the parts."
-Aristotle

"Education costs money, but so does ignorance."
- Sir Claus Moser


Few Anonymous Quotes-

"The only thing I like about stones that come my way is, once I pass them, they automatically become milestones."

"Engineers think that equations approximate the real world.
Scientists think that the real world approximates equations.
Mathematicians are unable to make the connection."

"The longer mathematics lives, the more abstract- and therefore, possibly also the more practical- it becomes."

"The pessimist complains about the direction of the wind, the optimist expects the direction to change, but the leader simply adjusts the sails."

"Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."

A Chinese Proverb

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever."

Quote by Plato

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

By Plato

Quote

“The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is accident.
That's where we come in; We're computer professionals. We cause accidents.”

By Nathaniel Borenstein

Quote

“Einstein argued that there must be a simplified explanation of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer. Much of the complexity that he must master is arbitrary complexity.”

By Fred Brooks

Quote

“USER, n.: The word computer professionals use when they mean'idiot.' "

By Dave Barry

Quote

“Computers make it easy to do a lot of things, but most of the things that they make it easier to do don't need to be done.”

By Andy Rooney