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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index K > Charles F. Kettering Quotes > Future

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Charles F. Kettering
(29 Aug 1876 - 25 Nov 1958)

American engineer whose 140 patents included the electric starter, car lighting and ignition systems.


Charles F. Kettering Quotes on Future (8 quotes)

>> Click for 67 Science Quotes by Charles F. Kettering

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If we drove an automobile the way we try to run civilization, I think we would face backwards, looking through the back window, admiring where we came from, and not caring where we are going. If you want a good life you must look to the future. … I think it is all right to have courses in history. But history is the “gonest” thing in the world. … Let’s keep history, but let’s take a small part of the time and study where we are going. … We can do something about the unmade history.
— Charles F. Kettering
As quoted in book review, T.A. Boyd, 'Charles F. Kettering: Prophet of Progress', Science (30 Jan 1959), 256.
Science quotes on:  |  Automobile (23)  |  Back (395)  |  Backwards (18)  |  Caring (6)  |  Civilization (220)  |  Course (413)  |  Do (1905)  |  Face (214)  |  Future (467)  |  Good (906)  |  History (716)  |  Life (1870)  |  Look (584)  |  Looking (191)  |  Must (1525)  |  Right (473)  |  Run (158)  |  Small (489)  |  Something (718)  |  Study (701)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Through (846)  |  Time (1911)  |  Try (296)  |  Want (504)  |  Way (1214)  |  Window (59)  |  World (1850)

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.
— Charles F. Kettering
Quoted in 'Thoughts on the Business of Life', Forbes (), 62, 34. 0 Reviews Forbes Inc., 1948
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Interest (416)  |  Life (1870)  |  Rest (287)  |  Spend (97)

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.
— Charles F. Kettering
Science quotes on:  |  Future (467)  |  Hope (321)  |  Imagination (349)  |  Limit (294)

The future can be anything we want it to be, providing we have the faith and that we realize that peace, no less than war, required 'blood and sweat and tears.'
— Charles F. Kettering
Science quotes on:  |  Blood (144)  |  Faith (209)  |  Future (467)  |  Peace (116)  |  Realize (157)  |  Required (108)  |  Tear (48)  |  Want (504)  |  War (233)

We have reason not to be afraid of the machine, for there is always constructive change, the enemy of machines, making them change to fit new conditions.
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.
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.
— Charles F. Kettering
In 'Quotation Marks: Against Technocracy', New York Times (1 Han 1933), E4.
Science quotes on:  |  Afraid (24)  |  Automobile (23)  |  Change (639)  |  Circulation (27)  |  Competitor (4)  |  Condition (362)  |  Construction (114)  |  Constructive (15)  |  Crystallization (2)  |  Crystallize (12)  |  Daily (91)  |  Daily Life (18)  |  Desire (212)  |  Do (1905)  |  Doing (277)  |  Dollar (22)  |  Enemy (86)  |  Fellow (88)  |  Fifty (17)  |  Fit (139)  |  Future (467)  |  Generation (256)  |  Human (1512)  |  Human Nature (71)  |  Idea (881)  |  Inherent (43)  |  Junk (6)  |  Last (425)  |  Life (1870)  |  Machine (271)  |  Making (300)  |  Material (366)  |  Measurement (178)  |  Must (1525)  |  Nature (2017)  |  Need (320)  |  Never (1089)  |  New (1273)  |  Predict (86)  |  Prediction (89)  |  Present (630)  |  Production (190)  |  Quality (139)  |  Reason (766)  |  Suffering (68)  |  Taste (93)  |  Technocracy (2)  |  Ten (3)  |  Term (357)  |  Terms (184)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Think (1122)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Try (296)  |  Use (771)  |  Useful (260)  |  Usefulness (92)  |  Value (393)  |  Will (2350)  |  Wish (216)  |  Worth (172)  |  Year (963)

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.
— Charles F. Kettering
Science quotes on:  |  Concern (239)  |  Future (467)  |  Live (650)  |  Rest (287)  |  Spend (97)  |  Will (2350)

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.
— Charles F. Kettering
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Finish (62)  |  Future (467)  |  Live (650)  |  Rest (287)  |  Spend (97)  |  Thing (1914)  |  Will (2350)  |  Work (1402)

You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.
— Charles F. Kettering
Science quotes on:  |  Better (493)  |  Future (467)  |  Thinking (425)  |  Time (1911)  |  Tomorrow (63)  |  Yesterday (37)


See also:

Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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