Charles Kettering was an inventor and if he had lived in the current era he would be one of those people loved by the media for great sound bites.
Education is important, but it should be kept in perspective, otherwise it can limit creativity, or, as Kettering says, “An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn’t take his education too seriously.”
“The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.” I think these days, with education’s focus on standardized tests; it’s more like one in a hundred thousand.
Kettering knows people and their propensity to cling to the known and the comfortable, so he reminds us, “If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.”
As an inventor, Kettering is also very aware of the quickest way to stifle innovation, “If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.”
In a philosophic mood, Kettering reminds us of one of the great perks of living here, “In America we can say what we think, and even if we can’t think, we can say it anyhow.” True as that is, I sure wish people would do more thinking!
Finally, something that touches us all and that there is no getting away from, “We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.”
Image credit: Wikipedia
