Charles Kettering
Charles Kettering
Charles Franklin Ketteringwas an American inventor, engineer, businessman, and the holder of 186 patents. He was a founder of Delco, and was head of research at General Motors from 1920 to 1947. Among his most widely used automotive developments were the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline. In association with the DuPont Chemical Company, he was also responsible for the invention of Freon refrigerant for refrigeration and air conditioning systems. At DuPont he also was responsible for the development of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth29 August 1876
CityLoudonville, OH
CountryUnited States of America
Don't be afraid to stumble. Any inventor will tell you that you don't follow a plan far before you strike a snag. If, out of 100 ideas you get one that works, it's enough.
Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.
The person who doesn't know something can't be done will often find a way to go ahead and do it.
The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.
I expect to spend the rest of my life in the future, so I want to be reasonably sure of what kind of future it's going to be. That is my reason for planning.
No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.
We must look forward to the future as that is where most of us will be spending the rest of our lives.
Research means that you don't know, but are willing to find out.
It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
If we taught music the way we try to teach engineering, in an unbroken four year course, we could end up with all theory and no music. When we study music, we start to practice from the beginning, and we practice for the entire time...
Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.
A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.
We have been measuring too much in terms of the dollar. What we should do is think in terms of useful materials-things that will be of value to us in our daily life.