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
If you're doing something the same way you have been doing it for ten years, the chances are you are doing it wrong.
One fails forward toward success.
We suffer not from overproduction but from undercirculation. You have heard of technocracy. I wish I had those fellows for my competitors. I'd like to take the automobile it is said they predicted could be made now that would last fifty years. Even if never used, this automobile would not be worth anything except to a junkman in ten years, because of the changes in men's tastes and ideas. This desire for change is an inherent quality in human nature, so that the present generation must not try to crystallize the needs of the future ones.
Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.
The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.
The difference between intelligence and an education is this-that intelligence will make you a good living.
We work day after day, not to finish things; but to make the future better ... because we will spend the rest of our lives there.
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.