Engineers are not superhuman. They make mistakes in their assumptions, in their calculations, in their conclusions. That they make mistakes is forgiv…

- Henry Petroski

No one wants to learn from mistakes, but we cannot learn enough from successes to go beyond the state of the art.

- Henry Petroski

Failure is Central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation.

- Henry Petroski

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.

- Henry Petroski

I emphasize that virtually every engineering calculation is ultimately a failure calculation, because without a failure criterion against which to me…

- Henry Petroski

Form follows failure.

- Henry Petroski

Case studies of failure should be made a part of the vocabulary of every engineer so that he or she can recall or recite them when something in a new…

- Henry Petroski

The plain wooden toothpick, it may be argued, is among the simplest of manufactured things. It consists of a single part, made of a single material, …

- Henry Petroski

Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They…

- Henry Petroski