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

The most amazing achievement of the computer software industry is its continuing cancellation of the steady and staggering gains made by the computer hardware industry.

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

Engineering is achieving function while avoiding failure.

Design is nothing if not decision making.

Form follows failure.

The bookshelf, like the book, has become an integral part of civilization as we know it, its presence in a home practically defining what it means to be civilized, educated, and refined.

All conventional wisdom has an element of truth to it, but good design requires more than an element of truth - it requires an ensemble of correct assumptions and valid calculations.

Any design, whether its for a ship or an airplane, must be done in anticipation of potential failures.

Our expectations for a technology rise with its advancement.

Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail.

Why do you want to run away from reality?

Christmas is about change. It’s a time we open our hearts before we open our presents.

I've always played with kids that were five, six, seven years older than me.

I take things too seriously.

We didn't stay in the caves. We haven't stayed on the planet. With biotechnology, gene sequencing, we are not going to even stay within the limitations of biology.

We all had a lot of fun making the film ["Airplane" ], but there weren't a lot of outtakes or cracking up because we all were focused on doing our jobs in a professional manner.

[Our children] have been taken away from us by the psychiatric mental-health system. They've been taken away by the educational system, by the government, and by many different forces.

It's an awesome feeling being a father, because you never think you can fall in love with something so quickly. It was almost immediate.

The key to happiness is not to make yourself into a different person; it is to let yourself be even more of who you really are.

If you want to change a whole people, then you start with the girls. It stands to reason: they learn faster, and they pass on what they learn to their children.