Engineer – noun;

A person who carries through an enterprise or brings about a result, especially by skillful or artful contrivance

Engineer – verb;

to contrive or plan out usually with more or less subtle skill or craft; to guide the course of, manage or supervise during development

Etymology

Middle English engineour, from Anglo-French enginer to devise, construct, from French ingenieur from Old French engeigneur - a war machine.

All of these words derive from Latin “genius” meaning:

A divine spirit presiding at birth;A talent, natural gift

"Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind."

- Engineers Council for Professional Development (1961/1979)

"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 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 professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man.”

- Ralph J. Smith (1962)

"Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man".

-Tredgold for the

Institute of Civil Engineers (1828)

“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 (1958)

"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)

"… engineering is the art of doing that well with one dollar which any bungler can be with two after a fashion."

- A. M. Wellington (1887)

"Engineering is the conscious application of science to the problems of economic production."

- H. P. Gillette (1910)

“A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”

- Freeman Dyson

“Engineering is the application of science for human benefit.”

- J. M. Prausnitz

“Engineering is the art or science of making practical.”

- Samuel C. Florman (1976)

ENGINEERING

IS

PROBLEM SOLVING

“Engineering is a great profession.”

-Herbert Hoover, Engineer and President of the US from 1929-1932

“Engineering is damn hard work.”

– Hal Goldberg, Tufts

“Before I came here I was confused about this subject. Having listened to your lecture I am still confused, but on a higher level.”

-Enrico Fermi

If you want to be successful professionally,

First, learn to do your job in 40 hours per week, and

Then, work 80 hours per week.

“Engineers aren't boring people, we just get excited over boring things.”

- anonymous

“It was like that when I got here.”

- Homer Simpson

“Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.”

- Unknown

“Therefore, O students, study mathematics and do not build without foundations.”

- Leonardo Da VinciThe Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci,

Quaderni 1 7 r

“What need the bridge much broader than the flood?”

- William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing

“Death and taxes are unsolved engineering problems.”

- Romana Machado

“There is only one nature - the division into science and engineering is a human imposition, not a natural one. Indeed, the division is a human failure; it reflects our limited capacity to comprehend the whole.” 

- William Allan Wulf

“I derive satisfaction from doing something that is useful for other people. I enjoy what I do, I was born to be an engineer.”

- B. Gordon, Founder, CEO Analogic

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes, which can be made, in a very narrow field.”

- Neils Bohr

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."

- James Branch Cabell

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."

- Charles Darwin

"The story of civilization is the story of engineering—that long and arduous struggle to make the forces of nature work for man's good."

- L. Sprague DeCamp (1963)

"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration."

- Thomas Edison

Ingeniers don’t hav to wory ‘bout gramer

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

- Albert Einstein

Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done.

“The beginning and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.”

- John Galsworthy

Whatever your life's work is, do it well.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"No one is listening or paying attention until you make a mistake."

- Unknown

“Chance only favours the prepared mind.”

- Louis Pasteur

“Reality is more complex than it seems."

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”

- Ambrose Redmoon

"Trying is the first step toward failure.“

- Homer Simpson

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.”

- Stewart Brand

Information Wants to be Free.

- Stewart Brand

“Inventing is the resolution of technical contradictions.”

- Genrich Altshuller

Change means projects.

More change means More Projects.

Better, cheaper, sooner.

Pick one.

Keep calm and carry on.

- British WWII slogan

The scientist explains that which exists; The engineer creates that which never was.

- Theodore von Karman